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INSTRUCTION 



ANIM. MAGNETISM. 



BY J. P. F. DELEUZE. 



WITH NOTES BY THE TRANSLATOR, 

REFERRING TO CASES IN THIS COUNTRY. 



PART I. 



% 



PRACTICAL INSTRUCTION 



m 



ANIMAL MAGNETISM 



by j? p: r deleuze. 



TRANSLATED FROM THE PARIS EDITION, 

BY THOMAS C. HARTSHORN. 



PROVIDENCE: 
B. CRANSTON & CO. 

1837. 









>\. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year One Thousand 
Eight Hundred and Thirty-Seven, by B. Cranston & Co. in the 
Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Rhode- Island. 






IN SlCHANtii. 

Bov A NTH- 
*r3.'06 



TO THE MARQUIS OF PUYSEGUR. 

Sir — Permit me to place your name at the head of a 
work intended to make more generally known the princi- 
ples announced in your writings, and the* consequences of 
the facts you have observed. Without you, Magnetism 
would have been forgotten after Mesmer, as it was after 
Van Helmont. No one would have engaged in it, if the 
most active charity had not given you the courage to sac- 
rifice your time, to despise criticism, and finally to brave 
all obstacles, to establish a truth that enlightens us in rela- 
tion to the faculties of our own soul, and upon the means of 
employing these faculties in curing or in soothing the dis- 
tresses of our fellow-men. To you I owe the knowledge 
I have acquired, as well as what I have imparted, and the 
little good I have had the happiness of doing. 

Accept, my Lord, 

this offering of gratitude, 

and respectful attachment, 
from your disciple, 

DELEUZE. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Several persons have requested me to publish upon the 
subject of Magnetism, plain and simple instructions, free from 
all theory, and proper in all cases to direct those who are 
convinced of the reality of the agent, and who are at a loss 
how to make use of it. I am now going to fulfil this task, 
solely with the view of being useful. 

It is not the object of this work to convince men who, 
otherwise well informed, still doubt the reality of Magnet- 
ism ; it is intended chiefly for those who are not engaged 
in medicine, physiology, or physics, who believe upon oral 
testimony, without having seen any person magnetized, and 
who, being persuaded that I know more than themselves 
upon the subject, wish to try my method in order to succeed, 
as I have had the happiness of doing, in healing and ameli- 
orating the ills of their fellow-creatures. I shall lay down 
principles which I believe true, without entering into any 
discussion to prove their truth. I shall avoid pronouncing 
upon that which appears doubtful : and if I err in the mode 
of explaining things, my errors, appertaining solely to the 
theory which I have adopted to connect the phenomena by 
referring them to the same cause, will not affect the indica- 
tion of the means to be taken to produce these phenomena, 
and derive advantage from them. I shall not stop to detail 

A* 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

facts in support of my doctrine : I shall limit myself to the 
citing of a few of those which I have myself observed, 
whenever examples shall appear necessary to the better 
understanding of my subject. 

For the purpose of obtaining a more orderly arrangement. 
I shall divide this instruction into chapters. 

I shall first lay down certain principles, in order to make 
my instructions more plain and simple. If my manner of 
announcing these principles be somewhat hypothetical, 
there can be no change in the results. Thus, I shall em- 
ploy the expression magnetic fluid, because I believe in the 
existence of a fluid, the nature of which is unknown to me ; 
but those who deny the existence of this fluid, who compare 
the action of magnetism in living beings, to that of attraction 
in inanimate bodies, or who admit a spiritual influence 
without a particular agent, cannot, on that account, contra- 
dict the consequences to which I shall arrive. The knowl- 
edge of the processes and of all the conditions necessary for 
the efficient use of magnetism, is independent of the opinions 
which serve to explain the phenomena, and of which, up to 
the present time, none are susceptible of demonstration. 

My first chapter shall contain an enunciation of the pria- 
ciples which are general and applicable to all cases. 

In the second chapter, I shall teach the various processes 
which are employed in magnetizing, when somnambulism 
does not take place. 

In the third, I shall speak of the indications which the first 
perceivable effects afford for the choice of processes. 

In the fourth, I will give information concerning the aux- 
iliary means by which the force of magnetism may be aug- 
mented, either by communicating the magnetic virtue to 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

certain bodies, or by putting magnetism in motion and cir- 
culation, so that several persons may at the same time ex- 
perience the action, under the direction of one magnetizer. 

In the fifth, I shall treat of somnambulism, and of the 
manner of proceeding with somnambulists. 

In the sixth, I shall speak of the precautions which the 
patient ought to take in choosing a magnetizer. 

In the seventh, of the application of magnetism to various 
diseases, and of its association with medicine. 
- In the eight!], of the dangers of magnetism, and of the 
moans of preventing them. 

In the ninth, of the methods of developing and fortifying 
in one's self the magnetic power, and of drawing from it all 
the advantages possible. 

In the tenth and last, I shall speak of the studies w T hich 
are appropriate to those who wish to acquire a profound 
knowledge of magnetism. 

Persons who read these ten chapters in course, will ob- 
serve that some things said in the first are repeated in the 
others, in almost the same terms. I would have avoided 
these repetitions, if I considered my work as a literary pro- 
duction : I have left them thus, that those who consult only 
one article, may find all the advice relative to the subject 
in question, without my being obliged to refer him to what 
has been already said. 

If in some places I permit myself to speak in a dogmatic 
style, it is not because I hold my own opinions in too great 
esteem : it is merely for the purpose of being more clear 
and precise, and of not leaving in uncertainty whoever shall 
consent to take me for a guide. No person feels the im- 
perfection of the work more than myself, since there must 



8 INTRODUCTION 

be in it many omissions. I will receive with gratitude any 
critical observations addressed to me, and will profit by 
them in the correction of my faults, and in adding to my 
second edition whatever may appear to be wanted in this 
first essay. 

Among the men who have devoted themselves to the 
practice of magnetism, there is a great number who have 
more intelligence and more knowledge than myself. I 
have a lively desire that the reading of this work, may de- 
termine them to execute the plan I proposed to myself, bet- 
ter than I have been able to do it. I invite them to take, 
in my instructions, all that appears to them worthy of being 
preserved, and not to quote me except to rectify the errors 
which may have escaped my diligence. Our wish is to do 
good ; this wish unites us, it identifies us, so to speak, one 
with another. When success is obtained, let us enjoy it 
equally, whoever may be the author of it. It is possible 
for self-love to be gratified in the discovery of a truth, but 
never in having done good deeds. 

A physician who has already become celebrated, would 
perhaps increase his reputation, by publishing a good work 
upon magnetism : he would call attention to an order of 
phenomena which belongs to animated nature ; he would 
found a school; he would find disciples among his brethren 
in the profession. This kind of success is impossible for 
us : our adversaries condemn us without examination, and 
they exercise a great influence upon public opinion. We 
have no partisans except among those to whom we have 
rendered service, and the greater part of them dare not 
raise their voice. Happily their number increases every 
day : and that should sustain our courage and our hopes. 
Let us continue then to work in concert to spread abroad 



INTRODUCTION. 



9 



the knowledge of magnetism, without disputation, without 
fear, and without the spirit of system. Let us banish the 
abuses and the dangers which may attend the use of it. 
Let us collect the materials of a beneficent science : the 
time will arrive when a man of genius will reunite all these 
materials, and rear an edifice which time cannot overthrow.* 

* This was written in 1825. Since that time, in 1831, the Royal 
Academy of Medicine, through their committee, whose report is 
worthy of study as a model of accurate philosophical investigation, 
pronounced upon the subject an opinion, which has changed the 
popular feeling in France in relation to it. Its existence, as a 
peculiar faculty of the human mind, is no longer a matter of ques- 
tion among men of science who have witnessed its phenomena. 
The extent of its utility is now a question worthy of profound inves- 
tigation, and not to be settled by men who never think, and who 
decide without looking into its merits. The evidences in favor of its 
utility are so abundant in European works of high authority, that an 
ignorance of its true history, which is not to be found in the Ency- 
clopedias, may be deemed singular in men of good information ; 
and disgraceful, if they suffer themselves to oppose it through incu- 
rious prejudice. In this vicinity, it receives the support of medical 
practitioners of unquestionable skill. It should always be in the 
hands of such, or administered under their direction. To promote 
this object, and to recal the public attention from the curious 
phenomena to the true use of it, the translator has given the 
instructions of the venerable Deleuze an English dress. 



ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 



CHAPTER I. 
GENERAL VIEWS AND PRINCIPLES. 

1. Man has the faculty of exercising over his fellow, 
men a salutary influence, in directing towards them by his 
will the vital principle. 

2. The name of magnetism has been given to this facul- 
ty : it is an extension of the power which all living beings 
have, of acting upon those who are submitted to their will. 

3. We perceive this faculty only by the results; and we 
make no use of it, except as far as we will to use it. 

4. The first condition of action, then, is to exercise the 
will. 

5. As we cannot comprehend how a body can act upon 
another at a distance, without there being something to es- 
tablish a communication between them, we suppose that a 
substance emanates from him who magnetizes, and is con- 
veyed to the person magnetized, in the direction given it by 
the will. This substance, which sustains life in us, we call 
the magnetic fluid. The nature of this fluid is unknown ; 
even its existence has not been demonstrated ; but every 
thing occurs as if it did exist, and that warrants us in ad- 



12 GENERAL VIEWS AND PRINCIPLES. [CHAP. I* 

mitting it, while we are indicating the means of employing 
magnetism. 

6. Man is composed of a body and a soul; and the influ- 
ence he exerts, participates the properties of both. It fol- 
lows that there are three actions in magnetism : first, phys- 
ical ; second, spiritual ; third, mixt action. It will soon be 
seen how easy it is to distinguish the phenomena which be- 
long to each. 

7. If the will is necessary to direct the fluid, belief is 
necessary to induce one to make a firm and steady use of 
the faculties he possesses. Confidence in the power we 
possess, makes us act without effort and without distraction. 
As to the rest, confidence is only the consequence of belief: 
it differs in this only — one believes himself to be endowed 
with a power, whose reality he does not doubt. 

8. In order that one individual may act upon another, 
there must exist between them a moral and physical sym- 
pathy ; as there is between all the members of an animated 
body. Physical sympathy is established by means which 
we shall indicate : moral sympathy by the desire of doing 
good to one who desires to receive it ; or by ideas and 
wishes which, occupying them both equally, forms between 
them a communication of sentiments. When this sympathy 
is well established between two individuals, we say, they 
are in communication. 

9. Thus the first condition of magnetizing, is the will ; 
the second is the confidence which the magnetizer has in 
his own powers ; the third is benevolence, or the desire of 
doing good. One of these qualities may supply the others 
to a certain point; but to have the action at the same 
time energetic and salutary, the three conditions must be 
united. 



CHAP. I.] GENERAL VIEWS AND PRINCIPLES. 13 

10. The magnetic fluid may not only act directly upon 
the person whom we wish to magnetize, but it may also be 
conveyed to him by an intermediate body, which we have 
charged with this fluid, to which we have given a determi- 
nate direction. 

11. The direct action of magnetism ceases when the 
magnetizer ceases to will ; but the direction given by mag- 
netism does not cease in that case, and the most trifling cir- 
cumstance sometimes suffices to renew the phenomena which 
it first produced. 

12. A constant will supposes continued attention ; but 
attention is sustained without effort when one has entire 
confidence in his powers. A man who makes towards a 
designated goal, is always attentive to avoid obstacles, to 
move his feet in a proper direction ; but this sort of atten- 
tion is so natural to him as to be easy, because he has first 
determined his movement, and feels in himself the force 
necessary to continue it. 

13. The action of the magnetic fluid, being relative to the 
direction given it, will not be salutary only so far as it is 
accompanied with a good intention. 

14. Magnetism, or the action of magnetism, springs from 
three things: 1st. the will to act; 2d. a sign, the expression 
of that will ; 3d. confidence in the means employed. If 
the desire of doing good be not united to the will to act, there 
will be some effects, but these effects will be irregular. 

15. The fluid which emanates from the magnetizer, ex- 
ercising a physical influence upon the patient, it follows that 
the magnetizer ought to be in good health. This influence 
exerting, in the course of time, an effect upon the moral 
condition of the patient, it follows that the magnetizer ought 



14 GENERAL VIEWS AND PRINCIPLES. [CHAP. I. 

to be worthy of esteem for the uprightness of his mind, the 
parity of his sentiments, and the honesty of his character. 
The knowledge of this principle is equally important for 
those who magnetize, and for those who are the subjects of 
magnetism. 

16. The faculty of magnetizing exists in all persons ; but 
all do not possess it in the same degree. This difference of 
magnetic power in various individuals, arises from the supe- 
riority which some have over others, in moral and physical 
qualities. Among the moral qualities, are, confidence in 
one's own power, energy of will, facility in sustaining and 
concentrating the attention, the sentiment of benevolence 
which unites us to every suffering being, strength of mind 
enabling one to remain calm in the midst of the most alarm- 
ing crises, patience which prevents uneasiness in a long and 
painful struggle, disinterestedness which makes one forget 
himself and devote himself to the being whom he attends, 
and which banishes vanity and even curiosity. Of physi- 
cal qualifications, the first is good health, the next a pecu- 
liar power, different from that which raises burthens or 
moves heavy bodies, and of which we recognize the exist- 
ence and the degree of energy in ourselves, only by the 
trial we make of it. 

17. Therefore there are men who have a magnetic 
power very superior to that of others. It is so great in 
some persons, that they are obliged to moderate it. 

18. The magnetic virtue developes itself by exercise, 
and a person uses it with more facility and success, when 
he has acquired the habit of exerting it. 

19. Although the magnetic fluid escapes from all the 
body, and the will suffices to give it direction, the external 



CHAP. I.] GENERAL VIEWS AND PRINCIPLES. 15 

organs by which v> T e act are the most proper to throw it off 
with the intention determined by the will. For this reason 
we make use of our hands and of our eyes to magnetize. 
The word which indicates our will, can often exert an ac- 
tion when the communication is well established. The 
very accents of the magnetizer being produced by the vital 
energy, act upon the organs of the patient. 

20. The magnetic action can be conveyed to very great 
distances, but it acts in that manner only with persons who 
are perfectly in communication. 

21. All men are not sensible to the magnetic action : 
and the same persons are more or less so, according to the 
temporary dispositions in which they are found. 

22. Magnetism generally exercises no influence upon 
persons in health. The same man who was insensible 
to it in a state of good health, will experience the effects of 
it when ill. There are diseases in which the action of 
magnetism is not perceived ; there are others in which it is 
evident. We do not yet know enough of it to determine 
the cause of these anomalies, nor to pronounce beforehand, 
whether magnetism will or will not act. We have only 
certain probabilities in regard to it : but that should not 
create an objection to the reality of magnetism, since at 
least three-fourths of the patients feel the effects of it. 

22. Nature has established a communion or a physical 
sympathy between certain individuals : it is for this reason 
that many magnetizers act much more promptly and more 
efficaciously upon certain patients than upon others ; and 
that the same magnetizer does not agree equally with all 
patients. There are even some of them who are better 
calculated to heal certain diseases. Some persons think 



16 GENERAL VIEWS AND PRINCIPLES. [CHAP. I. 

themselves insensible to the action of magnetism, because 
they have not met a magnetizer congenial to them. 

23. The magnetic virtue exists equally and in the same 
degree in the two sexes ; and women ought to be preferred 
as magnetizers of women, for several reasons which we shall 
mention. 

24. Many persons feel much fatigue when they magnet- 
ize ; others do not feel any. This is not owing to the 
movements that are made, but to the loss of the vital prin- 
ciple or magnetic fluid. He who is not endowed with great 
magnetic force, would exhaust himself in the course of time 
if he were to magnetize every day for several hours. Gen- 
erally speaking, every one in good health and not enfeebled 
by age, might undertake the treatment of a single patient, 
and give him a sitting of one hour each day. But every 
one has not the strength necessary for magnetizing several 
persons, nor several hours in succession. As to the rest, 
the more one exercises himself in it, the less he is fatigued ; 
because he employs only just as much force as is necessary. 

25. Children over seven years of age magnetize very 
well, when they have witnessed the operation. They act by 
imitation, with an entire confidence, with a determined will, 
without effort, without being distracted by the least doubt. 
or by curiosity, and they very well and very quickly re- 
move a casual ailment. They learn to magnetize as they 
learn to walk, and they are moved by the desire of soothing 
him for whom they have an affection ; but they ought not to 
be permitted to do it, because it would injure their growth 
and weaken them. 

26. Confidence, which is an essential condition with the 
magnetizer, is not necessary in the person magnetized : 



CHAP. I.] GENERAL VIEWS AND PRINCIPLES. 17 

one can act equally upon those who believe, and upon those 
who do not believe in magnetism. It suffices if the patient 
yields himself up passively, making no resistance. Never- 
theless confidence contributes to the efficaciousness of mag- 
netism, as it does to that of most remedies. 

27. In general, magnetism acts in a more sensible and 
efficacious manner upon persons who have led a simple and 
frugal life, and who have not been agitated by passions, 
than upon those with whom the course of nature has been 
troubled, either by habits of luxury, or by remedies. Mag- 
netism does no more than to employ, regulate, and direct 
the forces of nature : the more the course of nature has 
been interrupted by foreign agents, the more difficult it is 
for the magnetizer to re-establish it. Magnetism therefore 
cures much more promptly and much better, persons who 
reside in the country, and children, than those who have 
lived in the world, who have taken much medicine, and 
whose nerves are irritated. Nervous persons, when mag- 
netism has once gained empire over them, present the most 
singular phenomena,, but much fewer cures, especially radi- 
cal cures. 

28. Magnetism having for its object the developement of 
what physicians call the forces medicatrices, that is to say. 
the seconding of the efforts that nature makes to relieve 
itself, and the facilitating of the cures to which it is disposed, 
it is essential to act with constancy in aid of nature, and 
never to oppose it. Whence it follows that people ought 
not to magnetize through curiosity, nor to exhibit the power 
with which they are endowed, nor to produce surprising 
effects, nor to convince the incredulous ; but solely for the 
purpose of doing good, and in cases where it is thought to 

B* 



18 GENERAL VIEWS AND PRINCIPLES. [CHAP. I. 

be useful. It follows also that the magnetizer ought to em- 
ploy his power gradually, and by little and little. He ought 
to be exempt from vanity, from curiosity, from interest : 
one only sentiment ought to animate him, the desire of do- 
ing good to him whose cure he undertakes, and with whom 
he ought to occupy himself wholly, all the time he is mag- 
netizing him. He ought not to search out any extraordi- 
nary effect, but to know how to take advantage of the cri- 
ses which nature, sustained by magnetism, produces of itself 
for promoting the cure. 

29. Although the choice of this or of that process is not 
essential in order to direct the action of magnetism, it is 
useful to adopt a method, and to follow it habitually with- 
out thinking of it, so as never to be embarrassed, and to 
lose time in searching what motions it is most proper to 
make. 

30. When one has acquired the habit of concentrating 
his attention, and of abstracting himself from every thing 
foreign to the object he has in view, he will feel in himself 
an instinctive impulse to convey the action to this or to that 
organ, and to modify it according to circumstances. It is 
necessary to obey this impulse without searching into the 
cause of it. When the patient yields himself entirely to 
the action of magnetism, without being distracted by 
other ideas, it often happens that a similar instinct causes 
him to indicate the processes which are the most proper for 
him : the magnetizer should then suffer himself to be di- 
rected. 

3 1 . Magnetism often excites pain in that part of the body 
where the seat of the disease is found : it renews old and 
slumbering pains : these pains are produced by the efforts 



.CHAP. I.] GENERAL VIEWS AND PRINCIPLES, 19 

which nature makes to triumph over the malady. We 
ought not to be troubled on their account ; they are but 
transient, and the patient always finds himself better after 
having experienced them : this is what distinguishes the 
pains which are called critical from those which are pro- 
duced by the progress of the disease. 

32. When any crisis takes place, it is very danger- 
ous to interrupt or trouble it. We will explain what 
we mean by crises, and designate the various kinds of 
them. 

33. Before undertaking a magnetic treatment, the mag- 
netizer ought to examine himself: he ought to ask himself 
whether he can continue it, and whether the patient or 
those who have influence over him will put any obstacle in 
the way. He ought not to undertake it if he feels any re- 
pugnance, or if he fears to catch the disease. To act effi- 
caciously, he should feel himself drawn towards the person 
who requires his care, take an interest in him, and have the 
desire and the hope of curing, or at least relieving him. As 
soon as he has decided, which he should never do lightly, 
he ought to consider him whom he magnetizes as his broth- 
er, as his friend : he should be so devoted to him as not to 
perceive the sacrifices that he imposes upon himself. Any 
other consideration, any other motive than the desire 
of doing good, ought not to induce him to undertake a 
treatment. 

34. The faculty of magnetizing, or that of doing good to 
our fellow-creatures by the influence of the will, by the 
communication of the principle that sustains our health and 
life, being the most delightful and most precious that God 
has given to man, he ought to regard the employment of 



20 GENERAL VIEWS AND PRINCIPLES. [cRAP. I* 

magnetism as a religious act which demands the greatest 
self-collectedness and the greatest purity of intention. — 
Hence it is a sort of profanation to magnetize for amuse- 
ment, through curiosity, or through the desire of displaying 
singular effects. They who demand experiments to see a 
spectacle, know not what they demand ; but the magnetizer 
ought to know it, to respect himself, and to preserve his 
dignity. 



CHAPTER II. 

OF THE PROCESSES IN ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 

The principles we have given in the preceding chapter 
are essential, invariable ; and, in all cases, the power and 
efficacy of magnetism depends upon their application. The 
processes of which we are about to speak are not alike 
employed by all magnetizers. Many of them follow pe- 
culiar ones ; but, whatever method they pursue, the results 
•are nearly the same. The processes however ought to be 
diversified according to circumstances : we are often deter- 
mined in the choice, not only by the kind of disease, but by 
a regard to convenience and other circumstances, and even 
by the desire of avoiding what might appear extraordinary. 
What I am about to say, is useless to persons who have ac- 
quired the habit of magnetizing. Let them continue to fol- 
low the method which has constantly issued in the comfort- 
ing or the curing* of their patients. I write for those who, 
not yet knowing any thing about it, are embarrassed in the 
exercise of a faculty whose existence they do not doubt ; 
and I am about to teach them the manner of magnetizing 
which I adopted after having received instruction, and after 
having collected and made observations during thirty-five 
years. 

* I add the words comforting and curing, because every method 
having for its object the production of surprising effects, or to show 
the power of the magnetizer, is essentially vicious. 



22 OF THE PROCESSES [CHAP. IT* 

When a sick person desires you to attempt to cure him 
by magnetism, and neither the family nor the physician 
make objection to it, if you feel the desire to second his 
wishes, and are resolved to continue the treatment so long 
as it shall be necessary, settle with him the hour of the sit- 
tings, make him promise to be exact, not to limit himself to 
an attempt of a few days, to conform himself to your advice 
in relation to regimen, and not to speak of the undertaking 
except to persons who ought naturally to be informed of it. 

When you are once agreed, and determined to treat the 
thing seriously, remove from the patient all persons who 
would be troublesome ; do not keep near you any except 
necessary witnesses, (one only if it can be so,) and request 
of them not to occupy themselves at all with the processes 
you employ, nor with the effects that follow, but to unite 
with you in the intention of doing good to the patient. Ar- 
range things so as not to be too cold nor too warm, so that 
nothing shall interfere with the freedom of your movements, 
and take precautions to prevent all interruptions during the 
sitting. 

Cause your patient to sit down in the easiest position pos- 
sible, and place yourself before him, on a seat a little more 
elevated, so that his knees may be between yours, and your 
feet by the side of his. Demand of him in the first place 
that he give himself up entirely, that he think of nothing, 
that he do not trouble himself by examining the effects which 
he experiences, that he banish all fear, and indulge hope, 
and that he be not disquieted or discouraged if the action of 
magnetism produces in him temporary pains. 

After you have brought yourself to a state of self-collect- 
edness, take his thumbs between your two fingers, so that 
the inside of your thumbs may touch the inside of his. Re- 



CHAP. II.] IN ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 



main in this situation five minutes, or until you perceive 
there is an equal degree of heat between your thumbs and 
his : that being done, you will withdraw your hands, re- 
moving them to the right and left, and waving them so that 
the interior surface be turned outwards, and raise them to 
his head ; then place them upon his two shoulders, leaving 
them there about a minute ; you will then draw them along 
the arm to the extremity of the fingers, touching lightly. 
You will repeat this pass* five or six times, always turning 
your hands and sweeping them off a little, before reascend- 
ing : you will then place your hands upon the head, hold 
them there a moment, and bring them down before the face, 
at the distance of one or two inches, as far as the pit of the 
stomach : there you will let them remain about two min- 
utes, passing the thumb along the pit of the stomach, and 
the other fingers down the sides. Then descend slowly 
along the body as far as the knees, or farther ; and, if you 
can conveniently, as far as the ends of the feet. You may 
repeat the same processes during the greater part of the 
sitting. You may sometimes draw nearer to the patient so 
as to place your hands behind his shoulders, descending 
slowly along the spine, thence to the hips, and along the 
thighs as far as the knees, or to the feet. After the first 
passes you may dispense with putting your hands upon the 
head, and make the succeeding passes along the arms be- 
ginning at the shoulder : or along the body commencing at 
the stomach. 

When you wish to put an end to the sitting, take care to 
draw towards the extremity of the hands, and towards the 



* I employ here the word pass, which is common to all magnet- 
izers: it signifies all the movements made by the hand in passing 
over the body, whether by slightly touching, or at a distance. 



24 OF THE PROCESSES [CHAP. II. 

extremity of the feet, prolonging your passes beyond these 
extremities, and shaking your fingers each time. Finally, 
make several passes transversely before the face, and also 
before the breast, at the distance of three or four inches : 
these passes are made by presenting the two hands together 
and briskly drawing them from each other, as if to carry off 
the superabundance of fluid with which the patient may be 
charged. You see that it is essential to magnetize, always 
descending from the head to the extremities, and never 
mounting from the extremities to the head. It is on this 
account that we turn the hands obliquely when they are 
raised again from the feet to the head. The descending 
passes are magnetic, that is, they are accompanied with the 
intention of magnetizing. The ascending movements are 
not. Many magnetizers shake their fingers slightly after 
each pass. This method, which is never injurious, is in 
certain cases advantageous, and for this reason it is good to 
get in the habit of doing it. 

Although you may have at the close of the sitting taken 
care to spread the fluid over all the surface of the body, it is 
proper, in finishing, to make several passes along the legs 
from the knees to the end of the feet. These passes free 
the head. To make them more conveniently, place your- 
self on your knees in front of the person whom you are 
magnetizing. 

I think it proper to distinguish the passes that are made 
without touching, from those which are made with the 
touch, not only with the ends of the fingers, but with all the 
extent of the hand, employing at the same time a slight 
pressure. I give to these last the name of magnetic fric- 
tions : they are often made use of to act better upon the 
arms, the legs, and the back, along the vertebral column. 



CHAP. II.] IN ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 25 

This manner of magnetizing by longitudinal passes, 
directing the fluid from the head to the extremities, without 
fixing upon any part in preference to others, is called mag- 
netizing by the long pass, (magnetiser a grands courans.) 
It is more or less proper in all cases, and it is requisite to 
employ it in the first sitting, when there is no special reason 
for using any other. The fluid is thus distributed into all 
the organs, and it accumulates naturally in those which have 
need of it. Besides the passes made at a short distance, 
others are made, just before finishing, at the distance of two 
or three feet. They generally produce a calm, refreshing 
and pleasurable sensation. 

There is one more process by which it is very advan- 
tageous to terminate the sitting. It consists in placing one's 
self by the side of the patient, as he stands up, and, at the 
distance of a foot,^ making with both hands, one before the 
body and the other behind, seven or eight passes, commenc- 
ing above the head and descending to the floor, along which 
the hands are spread apart. This process frees the head, 
re-establishes the equilibrium and imparts strength. 

When the magnetizer acts upon the patient, they are said 
to he in communication, (rapport.) That is to say, we mean 
by the word communication, a peculiar and induced condi- 
tion, which causes the magnetizer to exert an influence upon 
the patient, there being between them a communication of 
the vital principle. 

This communication is sometimes established very soon, 
and sometimes after a long trial. This depends upon the 
moral and physical conditions of the two individuals. It is 
rare not to have it established at the first sitting. Experi- 
enced magnetizers generally perceive it in themselves when 
this takes place* 



26 OF THE PROCESSES [CHAP. II, 

When once the communication is well established, the 
action is renewed in the succeeding sittings, at the instant of 
beginning to magnetize. Then if you wish to act upon the 
breast, the stomach, or the abdomen, there is no utility in 
touching, provided it is not found more convenient. Ordi- 
narily magnetism acts as well and even better in the interior 
of the body, at the distance of one or two inches, than by 
the touch. It is enough at the commencement of the sitting 
to take the thumbs a moment. Sometimes it is necessary 
to magnetize at the distance of several feet. Magnetism 
at a distance is more soothing, and some nervous persons 
cannot bear any other. 

In making the passes it is unnecessary to employ any 
greater muscular force than what is required to lift the 
hand and prevent it from falling. The movements should 
be easy and not too rapid. A pass from the head to the 
feet may take about half a minute. The fingers ought to 
be a little separated from each other, and slightly bent, so 
that the ends of the fingers be directed towards the person 
magnetized. 

It is by the ends of the fingers, and especially by the 
thumbs, that the fluid escapes with the most activity. For 
this reason it is, we take the thumbs of the patient in the 
first place, and hold them whenever we are at rest. This 
process generally suffices to establish the communication*; 
to strengthen which there is also one other process. It 
consists in placing your ten fingers against those of the 
patient, so that the inside of your hands are brought near to 
the inside of his ; and the fleshy part of your fingers touch 
the fleshy part of his, the nails being outwards. The fluid 
seems to flow less copiously from the back of the hands 
than from the inside ; and this is one of the reasons for 



CHAP. II.] IN ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 27 

turning the hands in raising them, without carrying them 
off too far from the body. 

The processes I have now indicated, are the most regular 
andjidvantageous for magnetism by the long pass, but it is 
far from being always proper, or even possible to employ 
them. When a man magnetizes a woman, even if it were 
his sister, it might not be proper to place himself before 
her in the manner described ; and also when a patient is 
obliged to keep his bed, it would be impossible to make him 
sit, in order to sit in front of him. 

In the first case, you can place yourself by the side of 
the person whom you wish to magnetize. First, take the 
thumbs, and, the better to establish the communication, place 
one hand upon the stomach, and the other upon the back, 
then lower the two hands opposite to each other, one down 
the back and the other at a distance down the forepart of 
the body ; one hand descending to the feet. You may 
magnetize the two arms, one after the other, with one 
hand only. 

In case the patient cannot raise himself, take your station 
near his bed in the most convenient manner ; take his 
thumbs, make several passes along the arms, and, if he 
can support himself upright, several along the back ; them 
not to fatigue yourself, use only one hand, placing it upon 
the stomach, and making longitudinal passes, at first slightly 
touching through the clothes, then at a distance. You can 
hold one hand fixed upon the knees or upon the feet, while 
the other is in motion. Finish by passes along the legs, 
and by transversal passes before the head, the breast, and 
the stomach, to scatter the superabundant fluid. When the 
communication is established, one can magnetize very well 
by placing himself at the foot of the patient's bed, and in 



28 OF THE PROCESSES [CHAP. II. 

front of him ; then directing at that distance both hands 
from the head to the feet, dashing them aside after each 
pass so as not to conduct the fluid to himself, I have pro- 
duced^somnambulism by this process, without establishing 
the communication by touching. 

This is what I have to say about magnetism by the long 
pass, with which it is always proper to commence, and to 
which a person may confine himself until he has a reason 
for employing other processes. 

Let us now consider the circumstances which point out 
particular processes. 

When any one has a local pain, it is natural, after estab- 
lishing a communication, to carry the magnetic action to 
the suffering part. It is not by passing the hands over the 
arms that we undertake to cure a sciatic ; it is not by putting 
the hand upon the stomach that we can dissipate a pain in 
the knee. Here are some principles to guide us. 

The magnetic fluid, when motion is given to it, draws 
along with it the blood, the humors and the cause of the 
complaint. For example, if one has the headache, owing 
to the tendency of the blood to the head, if the forehead be 
hot and the feet very cold, by making a few passes from 
the head to the feet, and others along the legs, the head is 
relieved and the feet become warm. If one has a pain in 
the shoulder, and the magnetizer makes passes from the 
shoulder to the end of the fingers, the pain will descend with 
the hand : it stops sometimes at the elbow, or at the wrist, 
and goes off by the hands, in which a slight perspiration 
is perceived : before it is entirely dissipated, a pain is 
sometimes felt in the lower part of the bowels. Magnetism 
seems to chase away and bear off with it what disturbs the 
equilibrium, and its action ceases when the equilibrium is 



CHAP. II.] IN ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 29 

restored. It is useless to search out the causes of these 
facts, it is sufficient that experience has established them, 
for us to conduct ourselves accordingly, when we have no 
reason to do otherwise. 

The following rules, with some exceptions, may thence 
be established. 

Accumulate and concentrate the magnetic fluid upon the 
suffering part ; then draw off the pain towards the extrem- 
ities. 

For example, do you desire to cure a pain in the shoul- 
der? hold your hand upon the shoulder for several minutes, 
then descend, and after having quitted the ends of the fingers, 
recommence patiently the same process. Would you cure 
a pain in the stomach, place your hands several minutes 
upon the stomach ? and descend to the knees. You will 
accumulate the fluid by holding your hands still ; by 
bringing them down, you will draw away both the fluid and 
the pain at the same time. 

If your patient be troubled with an obstruction, place your 
hand upon the seat of it, leave it there for some time, either 
immovable or making a circular motion, and draw it along 
towards the extremities. If the obstruction does not occupy 
a great space, present your fingers near without uniting 
them, because it is principally by the points that the fluid 
escapes. Turn them aside when you bring them away, 
and then wave them towards the extremities. You may be 
assured that the motions you make externally, will operate 
sympathetically in the interior of the patient's body, wher- 
ever you have sent the fluid into it. 

If any one has received a blow behind the head, produ- 
cing a contusion, take the head between your two hands? 
conveying the action of your will to the seat of the injury. 



SO OF THE PROCESSES [CHAP. II, 

Then bring your hand down along the back, if the contusion 
is behind the head ; or down the forepart of the body to the 
knees, if it is in the front of it ; or along the arm, if it is on 
the side. You will thus prevent the blood from tending to 
the head ; you will avoid the danger of inflammation, and 
probably render bleeding unnecessary. If you wish to 
cure a burn, chilblains, or a felon, follow the same pro- 
cess. The examples I have just cited may be applied to 
most cases. I think that, in general, contact is useful to 
concentrate the action, and that passes at a short distance, 
are preferable for establishing and maintaining the mag- 
netic currents. Magnetic frictions are employed with ad- 
vantage in pains of the limbs. 

In the headache, if the pain is very great, and if there be 
heat, after having placed your hands upon the head for 
some time, withdraw them as if you believed the fluid you 
have introduced to be united to that of the patient, that the 
mingled fluid stuck to your hands, and that in separating 
your hands and shaking your fingers, you could draw it 
off again : it is in effect what you will see verified. If the 
headache proceed from the stomach, this process alone will 
not succeed ; it will be necessary to act upon the stomach. 
If the blood tends to the head, it will be requisite, as I have 
said, to draw it down, and repeat the passes over the legs 
and over the feet. 

I have said that the fingers brought near and pointed 
towards the part, act more powerfully, and concentrate the 
fluid better than the extended hand. There is one other 
process, the action of which is much stronger, and which 
may be employed with success for local pains and for ob- 
structions. 



CHAP. II.] IN ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 31 

Place a piece of linen several times folded, or a fragment 
of woollen or cotton cloth, upon the suffering part ; apply 
the mouth above it, and breathe through it : it excites a 
lively sensation of heat ; and the breath, which is charged 
with the magnetic fluid, introduces it into the system. It is 
also observed that the heat is not merely at the surface, 
as that of hot iron would be, but it penetrates into the inte- 
rior. After having employed this process, make the usual 
passes to draw off and expel the pain. 

Blowing cold air from the mouth at a distance, produces 
a refreshing effect. It helps to dissipate the heat, which is 
withdrawn by presenting the fingers, taking care to separate 
them as you draw them off, in the usual manner. 

The head may also be cooled by putting the palm of the 
hands upon it, and holding the fingers elevated and separate : 
the fluid passes off at the ends of the fingers. 

It is often impossible to draw a pain far from the part 
where it is fixed ; and you will succeed solely by driving 
it off progressively, by little and little. A pain upon the top 
of the head, will be lessened at first in the centre, by waving 
the hands downward and outward, on the right and left. 
At every pass a portion will be dislodged and carried off. 
It will take more or less time to dissipate it entirely. 

I will not here relate the details given by M. Kluge, 
Professor in the Medical School of Berlin, upon the various 
kinds of manipulation.* What has been said suffices to 
indicate the processes that may be employed when no sen- 
sible effect has been produced. I will merely add that the 
action is more lively and penetrating by the digital manipu- 

* In the German work, entitled " Animal Magnetism as a curative 
means." Vienna, 1815. 



32' OF THE PROCESSES [CHAP. II. 

lation, that is, when one presents the end of the fingers, than 
when he presents the hands open and the fingers straight; 
so as to have the fluid pass from all the interior surface. 
Manipulation with the open hand at a distance, is a process 
generally used to soothe ; it is often sufficient to appease 
the sharpest pains. The fingers united to a point, concen- 
trate the action upon the part towards which they are di- 
rected. 

I am now going to recapitulate, in few words, what I have 
said upon magnetism with the long pass, by indicating the 
processes which are the most convenient at the commence- 
ment, during, and at the termination of the sitting. 

1st. Establish the communication by holding the thumbs^ 
placing the hands upon the shoulders, and making passes 
along the arms with a slight pressure, and placing the hands 
upon the stomach. 2d. Direct the current from the head 
to the feet, or at least to the knees. Touching is useless. 
3d. Make passes, or else magnetic frictions along the 
legs to the extremity of the feet ; soothe the patient by 
several passes at a distance with the open hand ; and finally 
throw off the superabundant fluid by a few transversal 
passes. The first sittings ought to be about an hour in 
duration, when there is no reason to prolong or to abridge 
them. I say the first sittings, because a part of the time is 
consumed in establishing the communication. As soon as 
that has been once well established, the action of magnetism 
is manifested at the first moment ; then a sitting of half an 
hour or three quarters, provided the labor commenced is 
duly sustained, will be sufficient. 

It is necessary to order the treatment in the most uniform 
and regular manner possible. The sittings must be period- 
ical, and equal in duration : the magnetizer must be calm 



CHAP. II.] IN ANIBIAL MAGNETISM. 33 

and self-collected ; all foreign influence must be banished ; 
all curious persons excluded, and also every other witness ex- 
cept the one chosen at first. There must be a similar degree 
of magnetic power exerted at each sitting, and the mode of 
procedure first adopted must be continued. Nevertheless 
when the patient experiences sensations, these often deter- 
mine the operator to vary or to modify the processes. This 
then is the place to speak of these effects, and of the indica- 
tions they afford of the manner of proceeding.* 

Before entering upon the details, I think it important to 
combat an opinion which appears to me entirely erroneous, 
although it is maintained by men well versed in the knowl- 
edge of magnetism ; viz. that the processes are in them- 
selves indifferent ; that they serve only to fix the attention, 
and that the will alone does all. People have been led to 
adopt this idea at the sight of a phenomenon which some 
somnambulists present, and by the application of a particu- 
lar case to a general theory. 

There are some somnambulists perfectly concentrated, 
whose interior faculties are so energetic as to act upon 
themselves by their own power, and conformably to the 
will communicated to them by their magnetizer. The mag- 
netizer causes a head-ache, or a side-ache, to cease, simply 
because he wills it. There are likewise men endowed with 
such magnetic power, that they can act upon patients who 
are very susceptible and in perfect communication with 
them, while directing the action upon this or that part, by 

* Many magnetizers experience sensations which ought of neces- 
sity to govern them in the choice of processes. But as this precious 
faculty is not common to all, I shall in another chapter speak of the 
means of developing it in ourselves, and of the advantages arising 
from it, 



34 OF THE PROCESSES [CHAP. Ilr 

the thought and by the look : but these cases are extremely 
rare, and no conclusions can be drawn from them for ordi- 
nary practice. 

The processes are nothing if they are not in unison with 
a determined intention. We may even say they are not 
the cause of the magnetic action ; but it is indisputable that 
they are necessary for directing and concentrating, and that 
they ought to be varied according to the end one has- in 
view. 

Somnambulists point out for themselves processes alto- 
gether different, according to the seat of the disease ; and 
when they advise a patient to have recourse to magnetism, 
they take great care to prescribe to him the processes he 
ought to employ. It is certain, that by proper processes, 
and not by the will only, one is able to displace a pain, to 
make it descend, to accelerate the circulation of the blood, 
to dissipate an obstruction^ and to restore the equilibrium. 
There are cases when one does much good by placing his 
hands upon the knees, though he would do much injury by 
holding them long upon the stomach. Numbness, heavi- 
ness, disagreeable sensations, are produced by charging the 
head too much. It is often essential to spread out the mag- 
netism at the close of a sitting, and to withdraw the fluid by 
the extremities, in order to relieve him who is overcharged 
with it. 

When I said that a method different from mine might 
succeed equally well, I intended to say that each one might 
modify the processes according to his own views and prac- 
tice ; but not that he could omit them, or employ them in a 
manner contrary to the general rules. For example, vari- 
ous magnetizers act equally well by passes, more gentle or 
more rapid ; by contact, or at a distance ; by holding the 



CHAP. II.] IN ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 35 

hands to the same place, or by establishing currents. But 
it is absurd to believe one can cure chilblains on the feet, 
by placing the hands on the breast. 

There are some general processes that are employed at 
the commencement : there are others that are suggested by 
circumstances, or by the effects first produced. We shall 
discourse of these in the next chapter. 



NOTE I. 

I have often remarked that persons who are not in the 
habit of magnetizing, think they ought to exert a great deal 
of force. For which purpose, they contract their muscles, 
and make efforts of attention and will. This method is not 
good : it is often injurious. When the will is calm and 
constant, and the attention sustained by the interest we take 
in the patient, the most salutary effects ensue, without our 
giving ourselves the least pain. There are cases when it 
is necessary to make a violent effort, to oppose a false di- 
rection, to vanquish an obstacle, to sustain or terminate a 
crisis : we may then have need of extraordinary power ; but 
It is never at the commencement of a treatment, that we are 
obliged to have recourse to it. A person ought not to fa- 
tigue himself by magnetic processes : he will experience 
fatigue enough from the loss of the vital fluid. 



NOTE II. 

I have said that at the close of each sitting, it is proper to 
relieve the patient of the superabundant fluid, by making 
transversal passes, and passes beyond the extremities : and 



36 OF THE PROCESSES [CHAP. II. 

I have hinted that it is sometimes better to draw off the 
fluid from the patient, instead of charging him with that of 
another ; but I neglected to insist upon this point, and to 
show the case where that negative method is of great 
importance. I will explain my views on this subject. 

When there is a great excitement of the nervous system, 
a great irritation, or a tendency to inflammation, you will 
always produce a soothing effect in drawing away the fluid. 
It also frequently happens that the ailment is drawn away 
with the fluid. Thus in the inflammation of the brain, it is 
proper to begin the passes at the lower part of the head, to 
draw it out either by the sides, or by the top. I will cite 
a remarkable fact, to which I was an eye-witness. 

M. H***, a mate of a vessel, went several days ago to 
see M. N***, of whom I shall soon make mention. About 
five years ago, he had a stroke of the sun, (coup de soleil,) 
and since that period, he has frequently felt violent pains in 
the head. One day when this pain caused him intense suf- 
fering, M. N*** thought of filling a glass with magnetized 
water, of covering it with linen cloth, so that in turning it 
over, the water might not spill out ; and he applied it, thus 
inverted, to the back part of the head of M. H***, who 
leaned down for that purpose. Then he made passes from 
the head to the tumbler, to draw off the fluid and make it 
enter the water. M. H*** felt something pass from his 
head towards the inverted glass. He told me it was just 
like drawing out a fine stream of water. In five minutes 
the pain ceased entirely. I do not know whether it will 
ever return ; but there is no doubt that the same means will 
succeed in causing it to disappear. 

You might, in many circumstances, apply this process, 
which ought to be accompanied with the proper intention. 



CHAP. II.] IN ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 37 

I believe that if, after the operation, any one had drunk the 
water contained in the glass, he would have experienced 
very disagreeable effects from it. 



NOTE III. 

A short time after Mesmer, who explained all the phe- 
nomena of magnetism by causes purely physical, some per- 
sons going into the opposite extreme, substituted in the place 
of his theory, a system of spiritualism. M. le Chevalier de 
Barbarin, a very pious man, but probably too much devot- 
ed to mystical ideas, pretended that all processes were use- 
less, and that faith and the will, were sufficient to operate 
prodigies. Those who adopted his opinions, had recourse 
to pi'ayers at the patients' bed-side, and often succeeded in 
curing them. The success they obtained proves nothing 
to support their principles ; and the state of concentration, 
which this method demands, might give rise to bad conse- 
quences. Our spirit is the principle of voluntary move- 
ments ; it gives impulse to the nervous fluid : but so long 
as it is united to organized matter, it is destined to act ex- 
ternally by the aid of the organs, either immediately, or by 
the emanation which is conveyed to a distance, like the rays 
from a luminous body. I have interdicted myself from all 
theory, and I would have been silent upon the opinions of 
the spiritualists, if there were not at this time men of good 
intentions, who, disdaining magnetism, undertake to treat 
patients by practices which they think more powerful, and 
more efficacious. They obtain cures, undoubtedly ; they 
produce ecstatic somnambulism ; and their somnambulists 
are persuaded they are inspired. This may lead into errors, 
and disturb the imagination not only of the patients, but also 



38 OF THE PROCESSES. [CHAP. II. 

of those who consult them. Let any one recal the singular 
ideas entertained by those who witnessed the somnambulists 
of Suede, and he will see that nothing can be more contrary 
to reason. Let us not then consider somnambulism as a 
supernatural state, in which they have celestial visions and 
inspirations ; but let us see in it the extension of our faculties, 
and perhaps the developement of an interior sense, which is 
active when the external senses are slumbering. Let us 
employ magnetism as a means of aiding nature, of reani- 
mating strength, of establishing the equilibrium, of facilitating 
the circulation ; and let us not imagine that man can give 
to himself or to others, the power of working miracles. If 
no other advantages were derived from the processes than 
that of curbing the imagination, it would still be necessary 
to make use of them. 



CHAPTER III. 

OF THE EFFECTS AND THEIR INDICATIONS. 

Of the effects by which the action of Magnetism is manifested, and 
of the modifications which the observation of these effects indi- 
cates in the processes. 

There are some patients upon whom magnetism does not 
act, owing either to peculiarity of constitution, to the kind 
of disease, or to a want of analogy with the magnetizer : 
but this is very rare. It is less rare that the communication 
cannot be established until after several sittings : whence 
one cannot presume that magnetism does not act, till after a 
trial of five days. 

In order to found this presumption, even after this lapse 
of time, it is not enough that the patient has felt nothing 
when you have attempted to magnetize him ; it is to be 
considered whether he has experienced no change in his 
condition, whether he does not find himself better, or whether 
his disease is not rendered worse by pursuing the ordinary 
course. It frequently happens that magnetism gradually 
re-establishes the harmony of the system without producing 
any sensation, and its influence is perceived only in the 
restoration of health. In that case you ought to continue 
zealously to follow the processes I have pointed out, without 
troubling yourself about the mariner in which the magnet- 
ism acts, and without seeking for any apparent effect. By 
making efforts of the attention and of the will, and trying 
processes which are thought more active, you would fatigue 



40 OF THE EFFECTS, fcHAP. HI. 

yourself uselessly, and perhaps disturb the gradual and 
peaceful course of nature. 

The happiest thing that can happen to him who for the 
first time attempts to magnetize, is, to encounter a subject, 
who is not insensible to the action of magnetism, and who 
nevertheless feels only slight and gradual effects from it. 
If the first patient whose case is undertaken is absolutely 
insensible to the action, one is apt to imagine he has not 
conducted the process aright, or else he doubts his own 
power, and in proportion as one doubts it, it really becomes 
enfeebled. If one were at first to see wonderful effects 
produced, he would be apt to yield to curiosity and enthu- 
siasm ; and the attention would be drawn from the essential 
object, which is a cure. To magnetize well, it is necessary 
to be very attentive, to be surprised at nothing, and to ob- 
serve the effects produced, only the better to direct the action 
of magnetism. 

The instruction which I here give, has for its principal ob- 
ject, to prevent false ideas and exaggerated opinions, to which 
persons are liable to be exposed, for want of experience. 
They who adopt my principles, will not lose confidence in 
their powers because they have not at first succeeded ; they 
will not be precipitated into exaggeration because they have 
seen surprising things. They will know how to modify 
both the influence of their will, and the processes which 
they first employed. 

There are patients in whom the influence of magnetism 
is displayed in two or three minutes ; others, who do not feel 
it for a long time. There are some in whom the effects are 
constantly increasing ; others, who experience at the first 
time all that they will experience in the course of a long 
treatment. We sometimes meet with persons who obtain 



CHAP. III.] AND THEIR INDICATIONS. - 41 

from it, the first day, results the most remarkable and salu- 
tary, but who finally become accustomed to it, and receive 
not the least advantage nor the least impression. 

The effects by which magnetism manifests its action are 
greatly varied ; sometimes only one effect takes place, some- 
times several show themselves together, or successively, in 
the same patient. When these effects have been once pro- 
duced, it is very common to have them promptly renewed 
at each sitting. They change sometimes, in proportion to 
the change wrought in the malady. 

I will now describe the effects which are most commonly 
exhibited. 

The magnetized person perceives a heat escaping from 
the ends of your fingers, when you pass them at a little 
distance before the face, although your hands appear cold 
to him, if you touch him. He feels this heat through his 
clothes, in some parts, or in all parts of his body before 
which your hands pass. He often compares it to water 
moderately warm, flowing over him, and this sensation pre- 
cedes your hand. His legs become numb, especially if you 
do not carry your hands as low as his feet ; and this numb- 
ness ceases when, towards the close, you make passes along 
the legs to the toes, or below them. Sometimes instead of 
communicating heat, you communicate cold ; sometimes 
also you produce heat upon one part of the body, and cold 
upon another. There is often induced a general warmth, 
and a perspiration more or less considerable. Pain is felt 
in the parts where the disease is seated. These pains 
change place, and descend. 

Magnetism causes the eyes to be closed. They are shut 
in such a manner that the patient cannot open them ; 
he feels a calm, a sensation of tranquil enjoyment ; he grows 



42 OF THE EFFECTS, [CHAP. Ill* 

drowsy, he sleeps ; he wakes when spoken to, or else he 
wakes of himself at the end of a certain time, and finds 
himself refreshed. Sometimes he enters into somnambulism, 
in which state he hears the magnetizer and answers him 
without awaking. 

As the state of somnambulism ought entirely to change 
the manner of magnetizing, and as it does not take place 
except in a small number of cases, we will speak of it in a 
chapter by itself. Now, we are merely describing what 
occurs when there is no somnambulism, and pointing out 
the conduct to be observed in various circumstances. 

I said in the preceding chapter that one of the most ordi- 
nary effects of magnetism is to dislodge the pain, and make 
it pass down in the direction of the current given to the 
fluid. If when this is dislodged it does not at first reach 
the extremities, you will succeed in forcing it thither in the 
subsequent sittings. But there are cases, when this result 
requires uninterrupted action. 

For example, if the gout were seated in the head, and if 
in descending it is arrested at the breast or the stomach, it is 
essential to continue the action until it is conducted to the feet. 

The displacement of the malady is always a proof of the 
efficacy of magnetism ; but this displacement sometimes pro- 
duces very sharp pains ; instead ofbeing troubled about these, 
it is necessary to j magnetize during the succeeding days 
until they are entirely dissipated. I once saw a lady who 
had a catarrh with a severe cough. At the first sitting the 
catarrh was cured ; but there remained in her limbs violent 
pains, which lasted three days, because she did not again 
have recourse to magnetism. 

The action of magnetism is sometime accompanied with 
nervous movements, and very often a disposition to yawn : 



CHAP. III.] AND THEIR INDICATIONS, 43 

sometimes the patient experiences pains at the stomach, and 
nausea, which is even followed by vomiting ; at other times 
he experiences colic pains. 

These crises ought to give the magnetizer no disquiet. 
He ought to know how to calm those which are nervous, 
and to aid the tendencies of nature. 

It sometimes happens that the patient desires to have 
the sitting prolonged, sometimes to have it suspended, be- 
cause he feels a species of irritation. In these cases it is 
well to follow his inclination as far as possible. 

I here repeat, that what I have just described are insulated 
effects, exhibited in various circumstances, with various 
individuals, at different times ; and are rarely united in the 
same case. 

Now let us see what modifications the observation of 
these effects ought to suggest in the processes. 

If the patient feels the sensation of heat or coolness from 
your fingers, content yourself with magnetizing with long 
passes. If the action of magnetism excites pain in any 
organ, concentrate the action upon that organ, in order to 
draw it away afterwards. 

If there be manifested any heat or heaviness at the head, 
attract it to the knees. 

If magnetism produces a sense of suffocation, or an irri- 
tation of the lungs, make passes beginning below the breast, 
and continuing to the knees. 

If colics take place, and if they indicate, as they often do 
with women, that the circulation ought to be accelerated, 
avoid letting the hands stop at the breast, or even at the 
stomach ; carry the action to the sides and below them ; 
make passes along the thighs, and let the hands remain 
some time upon the knees. 



44 OF THE EFFECTS, [CHAP. III. 

If the patient have pains at the back, make passes along 
the vertebral column. 

If you see any nervous movements, calm them by your 
will, first taking the thumbs or the wrists, and afterwards 
making passes at the distance of several inches or even of 
several feet, with the open hand. 

If magnetism seems to act too powerfully, moderate the 
action, and render it more soothing, by making the passes 
at a distance. 

If the patient sleep, let him sleep tranquilly while you 
continue to magnetize him. When you wish to rest your- 
self, take the thumbs of the patient, or place your hands 
upon his knees. 

If the sitting has been long, and you are obliged to quit, 
rouse the patient gently, by telling him to wake, and by 
making passes sideways across the eyes. 

If the eyes are closed fast, not attended with sleep, open 
them by some passes sideways, but not till the termination 
of the sitting. 

If after being roused, the patient feels anew the desire of 
sleeping, you will leave him to sleep alone, taking precau- 
tions that no one shall trouble him. 

Here I ought to observe, that the magnetic sleep is of 
itself essentially restorative. During this sleep, nature un- 
assisted works a cure ; and it is often sufficient to re-estab- 
lish the equilibrium, and cure nervous complaintSo 

When you have ended the sitting, you will agree with 
the patient upon the hour when the next one shall take place, 
and you will endeavor to be exact. It is advantageous to 
magnetize every day at the same hour, and above all not 
to change the hour agreed upon for many days in succession. 



CHAP. III.] AND THEIU INDICATIONS. 45 

Should the patient whose treatment you have undertaken, 
appear to have any contagious disease, you will take care 
to be always active while near him, so as always to impart, 
and not to receive : that is to say, to sustain your attention, 
and employ your will, that you may constantly throw off 
the fluid from you. You will also avoid, as much as pos- 
sible, immediate contact. After each sitting, if you have 
the opportunity, you will cause yourself to be magnetized 
for some minutes to free yourself from the bad fluid with 
which you may be charged. If you cannot do this, you 
should pass your own hands along your arms to withdraw 
it and shake it off. If you experience fatigue, the open air, 
and especially the sun, will in a few minutes restore your 
energies. 

You should not magnetize when you have eaten heartily, 
and during digestion : but it is often useful to take some- 
thing before the sitting to increase your strength. He who 
undertakes a treatment, ought in general to live temper- 
ately, avoiding all excesses, and to guard as much as possi- 
ble against all things which tend to interrupt or disturb the 
exercise of his physical and moral powers. 

I have laid it down as a principle, that when magnetism 
produces crises, it is dangerous to interrupt them. I will 
now explain what is meant by crises. 

Physicians give the name of crises to every sudden 
change which, supervening in a disease, modifies its pro- 
gress or character, and enables us to forsee the result of it. 

These crises appear to be the efforts of nature to free 
herself of the morbific principle. They are salutary when 
they operate complete!} 7 ; they are injurious when the pa- 
tient has not strength to sustain them. They are manifested 
by symptoms ; such as a removal of the seat of the 



46 OF THE EFFECTS, [CHAP. lit. 

malady, a remarkable change in the pulse, evacuations, ex- 
cretions, eruptions, the gathering of humors, pains in certain 
parts, nervous motions, &c. In acute diseases, these crises 
generally operate on determinate days, which are called 
the critical days. 

Mesmer says there are no cures without crises. If, by 
jhis, he meant that the patient does not recover his health 
except by a change of state, it is so clear as to require no 
notice. If he meant that the cure is wrought by a sudden 
change manifested by evident symptoms, it is not always 
true. For many diseases are cured by slow and gradual 
amelioration, without any one's being able to mark the mo- 
ment when they assumed a favorable character. A fever 
diminishes day by day and entirely ceases ; and a hundred 
other diseases are soothed and disappear when no one can 
determine the cause of the cessation, any more than that of 
the attack. But it is true that in most acute diseases, the 
cure takes place by an evident change, which occurs all at 
once, in the state of the patient. 

Magnetizers have given the name of crises to the re- 
markable changes which the action of magnetism produces 
upon those who are subjected to it, or to that state which is 
different from the natural one, into which they are thrown 
by its influence : and as, of all the changes of state which 
are produced by magnetism, somnambulism is the most 
singular and most characterized, they have generally de- 
signated it as a crisis, and they have called somnambulists, 
crisiacs. 

This expression, thus limited, loses much of the significa- 
tion usually given to it by physicians ; but it suffices to be 
informed of it, that it may not be mistaken. 



CHAP. III.] AND THEIR INDICATIONS. 47 

I thought this explanation necessary in order to let the 
reader understand the principle I have laid down. We 
come to the application. 

The magnetic action has put your patient into a state 
different from the ordinary state, which displays itself by 
divers symptoms, such as sharp pains in a part of the body, 
the sense of suffocation, nervous movements, spasms, a con- 
siderable perspiration, the impossibility of opening the eyes, 
drowsiness, sleep, somnambulism. You ought to allow the 
crisis time to develope itself, to calm the spasms by degrees, 
to concentrate the action upon the seat of the pain, then to 
draw it off, taking care that nothing check the perspiration, 
to dissipate by little and little the drowsiness or the sleep, if 
it be too much prolonged. But you ought never to wake 
your patient suddenly, nor permit any one to trouble him, 
nor ought you to quit him until the singular state into which 
you have thrown him, has entirely ceased. 

The term magnetic state has been given to every state 
different from the natural one, and resulting from the mag- 
netic influence : this word is more general than the word 
crisis, and is not equivocal. You ought to avoid leaving 
the patient so long as he is in this state, during which a 
crisis really occurs. It is essential not to disturb the pro- 
cess of nature. 

When a patient is put into a profound sleep by magnet- 
ism, if he is touched by any one who rouses him roughly, 
he feels much evil from it. I have seen this thing produce 
convulsions or violent pains, render the return of somnam- 
bulism impossible, and even change to such a degree the 
condition of the patient, that he could not afterwards endure 
the action of magnetism ; and it was necessary to leave his 
restoration to time and regimen. 



43 OF THE EFFECTS, [CHAP. III. 

Persons who have been for the first time put into som- 
nambulism, have been known to lose all at once the faculty 
of entering into it again, by being rudely roused from it. 

General rule. — Whenever any crisis is manifested, 
the magnetizer ought to develope it, to second the work of 
nature, and not to quit the patient until the crisis is at an 
end, and until he is brought back to his natural state. 

It is important to have the magnetizer free from anxiety 
on account of the pains which he may excite in the abdo- 
men, and which are often renewed during several sittings ; 
these critical pains will disappear of themselves when na- 
ture has re-established harmony, and triumphed over the 
obstacle which is the cause of them. 

I ought here to speak of an effect happily very rare, but 
of which it is proper to forewarn those who are commenc- 
ing the practice of magnetism, so that if it takes place, they 
may not be alarmed, and commit any act of imprudence. 

It often happens that the first impression of magnetism, 
produces a crisis accompanied with convulsive motions, 
stiffness of the limbs, and fits of laughing or of crying. 

In this case it is essential that the magnetizer be not 
alarmed. He ought first to take the thumbs of the patient, 
and tell him to be calm : then he should make passes along 
the legs and feet, and withdraw himself in order to mag- 
netize him at a distance by the long pass. If he keeps him- 
self collected, suffers no one to approach, takes merely the 
necessary precautions, and trusts in his own powers, and 
the action of his will, the crisis will terminate, and the per- 
son magnetized will not be fatigued, and perhaps retain but 
a faint recollection of what has passed. 

If he wishes to continue to magnetize him, which will be 
very proper, he must, at the next sitting, as soon as he has 



CHAP. III.] AND THEIR INDICATIONS. 49 

put himself in communication by holding the thumbs, mag- 
netize him by the long pass, with the intention of soothing, 
and not augment the action too fast, taking care not to 
shake the fingers. Above all, it is important for the mag- 
netizer to have a mind free from all inquietude, to act as if 
the patient were as free from it as himself, and to banish all 
witnesses who might trouble him. 

The effect of which I am about to speak is so rare, ex- 
cept in nervous and convulsive diseases, that I have not pro- 
duced them myself but three or four times, in the course of 
a practice of thirty-five years. I know very well that it 
has taken place many times, and been attended with bad 
consequences ; but it was in the hands of persons who mag- 
netized to make experiments, to exhibit phenomena, and 
not with calmness and the pure intention of doing good. 

I should hardly have dreamed of noticing this effect, if I 
had not recently seen an example of it which I am going to 
give an account of, the better to make myself understood, 
although this work is not intended to report facts in support 
of what I advance. 

I was desired several days ago, to instruct a lady who 
wished to magnetize her daughter, while laboring under a 
slight but long-seated disease, the cause of which was un- 
known. I caused the mother to sit by my side, and, to 
show her the processes, I attempted to magnetize her daugh- 
ter, who experienced not the slightest effect. 

The mother having told me that she herself had been once 
magnetized, and had felt the necessity of closing her eyes, 
I wished to see if I could act upon her. 

After trying the long pass four or five minutes, and pla- 
cing my band upon her stomach, she cried out, " O, what 

E 



50 OF THE EFFECTS, [CHAP. III. 

an agreeable sensation !" One minute after, she was seized 
with convulsive movements, her limbs were stiffened, her 
neck became swollen, and she threw her head back, utter- 
ing shrieks. I took her thumbs ; and repeated to her sev- 
eral times with a tone of authority, "be calm." I made 
passes along the legs. I then withdrew a little, to magnet- 
ize by the long pass : finally, keeping at a distance, I at- 
tempted to make transverse passes, in order to draw off and 
chase away the fluid. Her appearance then changed, but 
a laughing fit succeeded which lasted several minutes. She 
gradually became calm. She told me she felt very well, 
and that she did not believe she had suffered. 

Now if I had called in any one to hold her, or if I had 
been frightened, it is probable that the lady thus magnet- 
ized would have suffered for several days. 

If it is rare to produce convulsive movements by the 
method generally employed, after the instructions given by 
M. de Puysegur, it is not rare to meet with persons up- 
on whom magnetism produces a nervous irritation, which 
leaves them after the sittings, in an uneasy state of feeling. 
When you meet with subjects who are thus susceptible, it 
is proper to make use of the most soothing action, and to 
act from a distance. If, after three or four sittings, the same 
effect takes place, you may presume that magnetism is not 
good for the patient, or that the fluid of the magnetizer does 
not agree with him ; and you ought not to persist in it. 
One might merely try two or three times other magnetizers. 

Many things remain to be said about the indications 
which may direct one in the choice of processes. These 
indications are of two kinds : the first are furnished by the 
state of the patient, and will naturally find their place when 



CHAP. III.] AND THEIR INDICATIONS. 51 

I speak of the application of magnetism to various diseases ; 
the others belong to the sensations which a practised and 
attentive magnetizer frequently experiences. I shall not 
discourse of these last, until I have mentioned the details 
relative to the employment of magnetism, to the crises it 
produces, and to the precautions that ought to be taken to 
obtain salutary results. But before ending this chapter, I 
ought to say a word upon the advantages one might obtain 
from a very feeble magnetic action, exerted by persons who 
have no idea of it, and by processes much more simple than 
the ones I have described. 

We often see, in the most laborious class of people, pa- 
tients to whom we presume that magnetism would do the 
greatest good, and whose treatment it is impossible for us to 
undertake. I will now explain how, and to what extent we 
can make their relations and friends supply our place for 
th. \r service. 

Although I have thrown all the light I could into the ex- 
planation of the processes, it would be useless to cause it to 
be read by peasants and laborers, who are never occupied 
in any thing but their work. They would not understand 
it, or at least they would not know how to apply it. But 
one might give them verbal instructions which they will 
perfectly comprehend, and which will suffice to put them in 
the way of doing more or less good to the patient who in- 
spires them with a real interest. Here is the way to effect it. 

Say to the person who appears to you to have the great- 
est affection for the patient, and who is with him the most, 
that he can soothe him by making slight frictions ; that 
these frictions make the blood circulate ; that the heat which 
escapes from the hand is salutary ; that by holding the 



52 OF THE EFFECTS, [CHAP. III. 

hand upon the suffering part, the pain is lessened ; and that 
by passing the hand over the body, he may draw off the 
disease. Tell him that one person may communicate 
health to another who is sick, as we communicate disease 
to a well man, when we ourselves are diseased. You can 
even assure him that the heat produced by breathing through 
a linen cloth, is very good to relieve an obstruction ; and 
that blowing from the mouth at a distance, assists in soothing 
a local inflammation. You may add that the processes you 
are teaching produce no effect, when the person who em- 
ploys them is thinking of anything else. If the persons to 
whom you address yourself are pious, you have a sure 
means of sustaining their attention, of directing their will, 
and of exciting their confidence. It is, to recommend to 
them to pray to God for the restoration of the patient, while 
they are engaged in acting upon him. When they are per- 
suaded that you give such advice through goodness, and that 
you do not doubt its efficacy, you will have little trouble in 
making them follow it. Then show them how they ought 
to put it in practice, by magnetizing for a quarter of an 
hour, and gaining the assistance of the person you are in- 
structing. While you are making this essay, guard well 
against seeking to produce any phenomenon. Try only to 
soothe pains, to bring heat to the extremities, and ease to 
the patient. Finally warn them that, if the patient should 
fall asleep during the operation of passing the hands over 
him, they must not awaken him. It is desirable that no 
phenomenon may be manifested so remarkable as to aston- 
ish the one who is magnetizing him, but merely such effects 
as augment his confidence. Among the persons whom 
you have thus instructed, you will meet with some who, after 



CHAP. III.] AND THEIR INDICATIONS. 53 

a few days, will magnetize very well, without any suspicion 
of what they are about. 

Ignorant people being often disposed to have faith in the 
efficaciousness of certain practices, one might point out to 
them as a curative means, a particular sign, or a form of 
prayer, objects which have received the benediction of a 
priest, or a sort of amulet. But this is what no one ought 
to do, because it is practising deception upon them, and the 
paramount obligation, is, to say nothing which we do not 
believe to be true ; besides, the abuse of means, innocent in 
themselves, may keep up ignorance, and favor superstition. 

I have frequently obtained the most happy results from 
the sort of instruction which I have just proposed. The 
action of magnetism thus directed, is doubtless more feeble 
than it would be in the hands of one who is acquainted with 
the power of it ; it does not produce surprising effects, but 
it is salutary, and is accompanied with no danger. I have 
often seen a man soothing the pains of a wife, and a wife 
soothing those of her husband, by conforming with simplicity 
and confidence to the directions I had given them. Two 
examples may be cited. 

1st. Oudin, an old soldier, whose case has been described 
by M. Ollivier, in his work " On the Spine and its Dis- 
eases," was paralysed from the hips to the feet. He could 
walk only by the aid of crutches, and his legs trembled 
continually. He had most violent pains in the loins. He 
had been treated unsuccessfully at the Hotel-Dieu, after- 
wards in the fourth dispensary of the Philanthropic Society, 
when I directed his wife, (although she was very feeble,) 
to make slight frictions, almost without touching, from his 
hips to his feet. From the first day, the feet which were 

E* 



54 OF THE EFFECTS, [cHAP. Ill* 

very cold and white, grew warm and red, as when sinap- 
isms are applied, and a few days after, the legs ceased to 
tremble. The pains in the reins were always very sharp, 
when the physicians apprised me that the disease originated 
in the spinal marrow. I then told the woman to apply 
frictions along the reins, drawing towards the legs, and very 
soon the pains were entirely removed. Oudin is not cured 
of his paralysis, but he suffers no more ; he can even make 
use of his legs, and is infinitely better. 

2d. The wife of the man who takes care of my apart- 
ment, was confined to her bed by violent pains, attended 
with fever. I went to see her, and perceiving she was 
very sensitive to the action of magnetism, I pointed out to 
her husband how he ought to proceed in order to relieve 
her. The benefit which he at first produced, imparted con- 
fidence to him, and in fifteen days his wife was cured. 
She then came to thank me. I asked her if she still suffered 
pain ; she replied, " Only in the shoulder. When it was 
very severe, her husband caused it to pass away ; but it 
returned, and he had not time every day to bestow care upon 
her." I then placed my hand upon her shoulder, and was 
much surprised to see her close her eyes ; and, a few min- 
utes after, fall into the state of somnambulism. I spoke to 
her ; and this is a summary of our conversation : 

Are you asleep ? 

Yes, sir. 

Why do you sleep ? 

I do not know. 

Do you see what the matter is with you ? 

(After a little reflection,) Nothing is the matter with me 
but my pain in the shoulder. 



CHAP. III.] AND THEIR INDICATIONS. 55 

What must be done to relieve you ? 

You are now doing what will cure me. 

In how long a time ? 

Three days. 

If, when you are awakened, I tell you to come three or 
four days successively, will you do it ? 

Yes, sir. 

I then caused this woman to come four days. The first 
and the second day, somnambulism was renewed ; the third 
day she suffered no more, and it was difficult to produce an 
imperfect sleep. The fourth day she experienced absolutely 
nothing ; and since that time, she has not been ill. 

It is very remarkable that the husband, who had no idea 
of somnambulism, did not cause it to occur, although his 
wife was much disposed to it. I did not produce it myself 
the day I went to see her ; because I did not intend it, and 
because I avoided acting upon her head. 

The kind of instruction which I have given is particularly 
appropriate to mothers who have young children. What 
they are taught seems to them analogous to what they are 
naturally prompted to do, in order to soothe them when they 
suffer ; and as they identify themselves with the object of 
their solicitude, and as nothing can withdraw them from the 
will to do good, it is enough to excite their confidence, and 
they will unite all the qualities requisite to the efficacy of 
magnetism. 



NOTE. 

Among the effects of the magnetic treatment, there is one 
of which it is proper to be premonished, and which I omitted 
to mention. I will now supply that omission. 



56 



OF THE EFFECTS. 



[CHAP. III. 



When a patient has an issue, it frequently happens that 
it closes after several sittings. This ought to give the op- 
erator no anxiety : it is a proof that the humors have taken 
another course. I directed the treatment of a lady who had 
been very ill for many years. Two issues which she had 
been advised to keep open, closed in a few days. She was 
at first alarmed at it ; but very soon she found herself bet- 
ter, and in six weeks she was restored to health. 



x 



CHAPTER IV. 

OF SOMNAMBULISM, AND OF THE USE TO BE 
MADE OF IT. 

It is a well known fact that certain persons walk, speak 
and act in their sleep ; and that when they are awakened, 
they have no recollection of what they have been doing. 
These persons are called somnambulists ; that is, sleep- 
walkers ; and the state in which they are, is called somnam- 
bulism. The disposition to walk in the sleep, has been 
considered as a nervous affection which we should endeavor 
to counteract, because of the accidents which might spring 
from it. 

The apparent resemblance between spontaneous somnam- 
bulism, and the crises which are often produced by magnet- 
ism, has induced men to call the latter magnetic somnambu- 
lism. A more appropriate name might have been found ; 
but as this has been received for forty years, it is useless to 
change it. 

Magnetic somnambulism, which we call, simply, somnam- 
bulism, because that term cannot be equivocal in this work, 
is a mode of existence during which the person who is in it 
appears to be asleep. If his magnetizer speaks to him, he 
answers without waking ; he can also execute various 
movements, and when he returns to the natural state, he 
retains no remembrance of what has passed. His eyes 
are closed ; he generally understands those only who are 
put in communication with him. The external organs of 



58 OF SOMNAMBULISM, [CHAP. IV. 

sense are all, or nearly all, asleep ; and yet he experiences 
sensations, but by another means. There is roused in him 
an internal sense, which is perhaps the centre of the others, 
or a sort of instinct, which enlightens him in respect to his 
own preservation. He is subject to the influence of his 
magnetizer, and this influence may be either useful or inju- 
rious, according to the disposition and the conduct of the 
magnetizer.* 

Somnambulism presents phenomena infinitely varied. A 
description of them may be found in a great number of 
works published upon this subject. This is not the place to 
describe them. My design is solely to teach the means of 
obtaining the most useful results fiom this crisis, without 
exposing one's self to the least inconvenience. 

Of all the discoveries which have excited attention, from 
the remotest antiquity, that of somnambulism certainly gives 
us the most insight into the nature and the faculties of man. 
The phenomena to which it has drawn our attention, de- 
monstrate the distinction of two things ; the two fold exist- 
ence of the internal and the external man in a single indi- 
vidual : they offer a direct proof of the spirituality of the 
soul : they make evident the truth known to ancient sages ; 
and so well expressed by M. de Bonald, that man is an 
intelligence served by organs, This advantage cannot be 
too highly appreciated, especially in an age when audacious 
minds do not fear to employ the researches of physiology to 
shake the certainty of the interior sentiment which reveals 
to us the dignity of man, his supremacy in the order of cre- 
ation, and his moral liberty ; a sentiment which is the basis 

* There are exceptions to the character here given, but they arc 
extremely rare. 



CHAP. IV.] AND ITS MANAGEMENT. 59 

of social life, and which engages to the practice of virtue, 
by pointing out to us in a future life the developement of 
our earthly existence, and the recompense of sacrifices 
made to obey the dictates of conscience. On the other 
hand, somnambulism makes known to us the means of cur- 
ing diseases which are curable, and of relieving those which 
are not : it serves to rectify the errors of medicine as well 
as those of metaphysics ; finally it points out the origin of 
a great number of opinions prevalent anterior to the exper- 
iments which have confirmed their correctness : and it 
restores to the order of nature, a multitude of facts which 
philosophers have disdained to examine, either because ig- 
norance and credulity had altered some of their circum- 
stances, or because, in the dark ages, they were made to 
serve as the foundation of superstition. 

Yet the discovery of somnambulism having been made, 
or rather renewed in our time, without our being prepared 
for it, and the application which can be made of it, demand- 
ing a meditative mind, great prudence, severe manners, 
religious dispositions, gravity of character, positive knowl- 
edge, and other qualities which do not accord with the ami- 
able levity and excitable imagination of Frenchmen, it may 
be doubted whether its sudden propagation has not produced 
as much evil as good, and whether it would not have been 
better that this marvellous phenomenon had not been at first 
observed, and that people had confined themselves merely 
to magnetism as Mesmer taught it, and as many persons 
before him practised it, without knowing whether they em- 
ployed a particular agent, or a faculty common to all men. 
But it was impossible that they who devoted themselves to 
the practice of magnetism, should not be struck sooner or 
later with a phenomenon which would not fail to present 



60 OF SOMNAMBULISM, [CHAP. IV. 

itself. It was equally impossible that they should not have 
been seized with enthusiasm at the sight of the wonderful 
things which accompany it, and made it a secret. It was, 
finally, impossible that men who were strangers to the true 
principles of magnetism, should not seek to produce the same 
wonderful things, to exercise their power and satisfy their 
curiosity, and should know how to confine themselves within 
proper bounds to avoid dangers and errors. Hence it has 
resulted that magnetism has often been employed, not to cure 
diseases, but to procure somnambulism. And as somnam- 
bulists have faculties and means of knowledge which we 
have not, people have imagined they ought to know every 
thing, and have consulted them as oracles. If instead of 
yielding to enthusiasm, they had examined the phenomena 
by the lights of physiology, they would have perceived the 
danger of pushing too far a state during which an inexpli- 
cable change occurs in the functions of the nervous system, 
in the play of the organs, and in the manner of perceiving 
and transmitting sensation ; that the more the sensibility is 
exalted, the more ought they to be on their guard against 
what might increase that exaltation : that at the extremity 
of the course which nature has marked out for herself, and 
which she has strength to run over, preserving the harmony 
of all the faculties and the control of reason, an immense 
field is open to the imagination, in which illusions take the 
place of truth : that somnambulism is only a transient crisis, 
of which it is necessary to make use without wandering 
from the design for which nature has produced it ; and that 
somnambulism too much prolonged, would give us habits 
which would not be in accordance with our ordinary desti- 
nation, and of itself would become a disease. 



m 



CHAP. IV.] AND ITS MANAGEMENT. 61 

I will not insist upon these considerations, the develope- 
ment of which would carry me to a great extent. I pro- 
pose to teach what it is necessary to know in practice, with- 
out entering into any discussion. 

Somnambulism is known ; it presents itself often in the 
magnetic practice ; let us see what are the means of always 
deriving from it the greatest advantage, and avoiding all 
misuse of it. 

The first advice I shall give, is, that you never seek to 
produce somnambulism, but to let it come naturally, in or- 
der to profit by it when it takes place. 

Many magnetizers, in order to produce it, charge the 
head very much ; and by this means, they often succeed in 
obtaining a forced slumber, a reflux of blood towards the 
brain, and partial crises which are of no utility : this method 
is not without danger. It is much better simply to employ 
magnetism by the long pass, and not to charge the head 
more than the other parts. If nature is disposed to this cri- 
sis, the fluid will, of itself, be carried to the brain, and the 
tendency to somnambulism will be manifested by the pa- 
tient's being in a state of tranquillity, by his closing his eyes, 
and by his sleeping. You may then, without any inconve- 
nience, pass the extremities of your fingers five or six times 
at a short distance before his eyes, in order to give more in- 
tensity to his sleep. 

You may then ask him, how he is ; or whether he sleeps 
well. Then one of these three things will take place ; he 
will wake, he will not answer, or he will answer. 

If he awakes, somnambulism has not taken place ; and 
you must not think any more respecting it, in the course of 
that sitting. If he continues to sleep, without answering, 
there is reason to suppose he is entering into the somnam- 



62 OF SOMNAMBULISM, [CHAP. IV. 

bulic state. If he answers without waking, and, after his 
waking, has no recollection of your speaking to him, the 
somnambulism is real. 

In case the patient continues to sleep without hearing 
you, you will continue to magnetize him as I have pointed 
out ; and you will wait, before you put him a second ques- 
tion, until the moment before that at which you think the 
sitting should be terminated. 

If he makes no more answer to this question than to the 
first, you will leave him to sleep tranquilly, or if you judge 
it necessary to rouse him, you may merely make trans- 
versal passes at a distance, bidding him to awake, in a gen- 
tle voice, and not commanding him with a tone of authority. 
If the patient makes a sign that he understands you, yet 
without answering, you will beware of urging him to speak 
It is a happy thing for him to be by himself, to collect him- 
self, and accustom himself to his new condition, and to ar- 
range his ideas. You will merely ask him to let you know 
by a motion of the head, whether he desires to be awakened 
or to sleep longer ; and you will conform yourself as much 
as possible to his wish. 

You will continue in the same manner during the suc- 
ceeding sittings. Yet if this state of mute somnambulism is 
prolonged, you will inquire of him whether he hopes very 
soon to acquire the faculty of speaking : whether you mag- 
netize him well : if he finds himself better for it : and you 
may make all inquiries of him which he can answer by a 
sign and without effort. 

Have a perfect command of yourself, and beware of em- 
ploying your will to influence your patient to speak, or to 
make his somnambulism more profound. Have but one 
intention ; entertain but one wish, that of facilitating the 



CHAP. IV.] AND ITS MANAGEMENT. 63 

cure ; and leave nature to employ, of herself, the increase 
of power which you give him. 

It may happen that his somnambulism will not proceed 
further ; but this is of no consequence ; it is not your ob- 
ject to render him a somnambulist, but to cure him. If 
somnambulism were necessary, if his constitution rendered 
him susceptible of it, this state would spontaneously devel- 
ope itself. Merely observe what peculiar precautions this 
demi-somnambulism requires ; such as, not suffering those 
to approach him who are not in communication with him, 
not to oppose him, not to awaken him roughly, and to con- 
tinue to occupy yourself about him. 

If your patient speaks, and to the question, "Do you sleep?" 
answers, " Yes ;" he is a somnambulist, but it does not fol- 
low that he is endowed with clairvoyance. 

Some persons have distinguished many degrees or shades 
of somnambulism. It is useless to occupy your time with 
all that, and there is no need for me to enter into this ex- 
amination, to point out to you the surest and the most sim- 
ple path, and to instruct you how to draw all the advantages 
possible from somnambulism, at whatever degree it may 
occur. 

When your somnambulist shall have given an affirmative 
answer to your first question, " Are you asleep J" you may 
address others to him. These questions should be simple, 
clear, well adapted, and concise ; they should be made 
slowly, with an interval between them, leaving the somnam- 
bulist all the time he wishes to reflect upon them. If you 
have been able to suppress your curiosity, which is always 
more or less injurious, if you do not suffer yourself to be 
astonished to see one who is asleep answer you with propri- 
ety, if you have no other end in view but the doing of good. 



64 OF SOMNAMBULISM, [CHAP. IV. 

if you do not think of collecting observations, you will put 
only those questions which are necessary. The response- 
made to the first one, will suggest others to you, always in 
relation to the means of curing the patient. 

The following may serve as an example of the series of 
questions to be first put to your somnambulist. 

Do you feel well ? 

Does my manner of proceeding agree with you ? 

Will you point out any other mode ? 

How long shall I let you sleep ? 

How shall I wake you ? 

When shall I magnetize you again ? 

Have you any directions to give me ? 

Do you think I shall succeed in curing you ? 

These questions will assuredly be enough for the first 
day when somnambulism has been induced. At the next 
sitting it ought to be induced sooner ; but you will not try 
to bring it on immediately, by charging the head. You 
will first employ magnetism by the long pass, and when 
your somnambulist assures you that he is sleeping, you will 
let him have a little time longer to collect himself. 

Then, after having repeated some of the preceding ques- 
tions, you may ask him whether he sees where his disease 
is ; if he says yes, you may request him to describe it ; if 
he says no, you may persuade him to look for it, observing 
to keep his attention to the point. You will take care not 
to form your questions in such a manner as to suggest re- 
plies which he can make without reflection, through indo- 
lence, or the desire of pleasing you ; you must let him be 
occupied wholly with himself, with his disease, and with the 
means of cure. 



CHAP. IV.] AND ITS MANAGEMENT. 65 

When he has once explained to you what he thinks of the 
nature of his disease, of its causes, of its consequences, of 
the crises he expects, you should ask him to search out the 
remedial means proper to be pursued in connection with 
magnetism. You should listen to him attentively ; you 
should take notes of what he tells you, if you are fearful of 
forgetting it. You should ask him whether he is very sure 
of the effect which his prescriptions will produce. And if 
in them there is found any thing which appears to you im- 
proper, you should make known to him your objections. 

You should especially take care to inform yourself well 
of the crises which are to bring on the cure, that you may 
not be alarmed at such as he has announced, and that you 
may know well the mode of soothing them. 

You must be exact in magnetizing him at the hour indi- 
cated by him, and by the processes which he judges most 
appropriate. You must ask him what things you ought to 
let him forget, what things it is proper to warn him of, and 
what means it is proper to take to induce him to follow out 
his own prescriptions. 

When he is awake, you should let him be entirely igno- 
rant of his being a somnambulist, and not let him suspect 
that he has spoken, provided he has not of himself expressly 
recommended that you should inform him of it, either to in- 
spire him with confidence in regard to any thing that disturbs 
him, or to induce him to follow a course of regimen, or to 
do something useful, which when he is awake is counter to 
his inclination. But, in this case, you will merely tell him 
what he believed absolutely necessary to know, and you 
will entreat him not to speak about it to any person. It is 
very rare that a patient has the curiosity to be informed of 
what he has said in a state of somnambulism : I believe, 



66 OF SOMNAMBULISM, [CHAP. VT„ 

also, that it never happens, when the magnetizer, during 
somnambulism, has forbidden him to meddle with it after 
waking. 

I have indicated the kind of conversation you ought to 
hold with your somnambulist. I cannot insist too much 
upon a point on which chiefly depends the developement 
and the direction of his faculties. I cannot give any advice 
in relation to the details, because it would not be equally 
applicable to all cases. But there is a general rule from 
which you ought never to depart ; which is, never on any 
account, to permit any question of curiosity, any attempt to 
prove the lucidity of your somnambulist ; to speak to him 
solely of his disease ; to direct all his attention to the means 
he ought to adopt for the restoration of his health. His 
cure is your essential object, your principal aim ; you 
should not desert it for a moment. 

I know that one may sometimes profit by the confidence 
of a somnambulist to combine with him the means of cor* 
recting his faults, and of rendering his conduct more regu- 
lar, to break off dangerous associations, and in fine to apply 
to his ordinary state, the elevated moral sensibility which 
he exhibits in somnambulism. In this, one will not depart 
from the rule I have prescribed ; he merely gives it a greater 
extension. For it is then, in effect, a question about pre- 
venting or curing a moral disease, more destructive than a 
physical one, and which often aggravates the latter. You 
are doing right, since you have really no other object in 
view, no other idea, than the intention of doing good to him 
whom you magnetize ; and do not engage him except in 
that which is most essential to him. 

The faculties of somnambulists are limited : their surpris- 
ing penetration may be regarded as the effect of a concen- 



CHAP. IV.] AND ITS MANAGEMENT. 67 

tration upon one single class of sensations, upon one order of 
ideas : the more their attention is distracted by various sub- 
jects, the less of it will they give to the essential object. 

If your somnambulist appears to meddle with things 
which do not promote his return to health, employ your 
will to withdraw him from them ; do not hear him ; and 
especially do not appear as if you were astonished at the 
proofs which he affords of his lucidity. You will excite his 
vanity, and that is very dangerous ; for when you have 
once awakened in him this sentiment, to which somnambu- 
lists are in general very much inclined, you can no more 
depend upon any thing. 

In the state of somnambulism, the moral sensibility is or- 
dinarily much more lively, and the somnambulists are often 
disposed to abandon themselves to the ideas or the senti- 
ments which have affected them in their common state. 
Endeavor to withdraw them from these, or at least do not 
say or do any thing which might favor this disposition. 

There are some somnambulists endowed with a surprising 
clairvoyance which is extended to objects which are very 
distant, and entirely foreign to what interests them in the 
wakeful state : but these somnambulists are rare, and it is 
only with a great deal of precaution and reserve that we 
should have recourse to them. I shall return to this sub- 
ject after having finished what I have to say about ordinary 
somnambulists. 

It would be advantageous to the somnambulist to be alone 
with his magnetizer. As in most circumstances that would 
be inconvenient or improper, you will be careful to have 
only one witness, who is always to be the same person, and 
who takes an interest in the patient. You will banish all 
useless witnesses, all who are excited by mere curiosity, and 



68 OF SOMNAMBULISM, [CHAP. IV. 

especially all the incredulous. All such must of necessity 
distract your attention. He who is conscious that another 
is watching his motions, does not act with the same single- 
mindedness and the same freedom, as he does who thinks 
himself alone. The idea of the judgment which the specta- 
tors will form, seizes him from time to time in spite of him- 
self, and that prevents him from concentrating all his facul- 
ties upon a single object. The more you are observed, with 
the less advantage will you magnetize. 

If there is a physician to whom you have imparted your 
attempt to pursue a magnetic treatment, and whom you 
have also engaged to attend when wanted, you will certainly 
have a desire to let him see your somnambulist, either to 
convince him of the effects which you produce, or to give 
him an opportunity of forming an opinion upon the charac- 
ter of the disease : but guard well against yielding to this 
conceit, which appears to have a useful purpose, though it 
really has its source in vanity. Nothing is more hurtful to 
a somnambulist than the presence of a physician who is not 
familiarized to the processes and the phenomena of magnet- 
ism. The physician and the somnambulist do not speak 
the same language : they do not see in the same manner. 
Your somnambulist would wish to convince the physician ; 
he will conduct his conversation with much address ; he 
will seek to answer all difficulties ; he will lose that sim- 
plicity which is necessary for his clairvoyance ; he will de- 
part from the line which nature has traced out for him ; he 
will make use of all the resources of his mind ; and, in the 
same degree, he will cease to have the faculties which are 
really useful to him. Give an account to the physician of 
what takes place, and you will do well ; but limit yourself 
to a simple and sincere relation of facts. What he does not 



CHAP. IV.] AND ITS MANAGEMENT. 69 

believe on your authority, he will believe no better when he 
sees it, unless he has made experiments, and every experi- 
ment is extremely injurious. 

To the reasons which I have given for excluding all kinds 
of witnesses, I can add another which is stronger than the 
others. 

There is in most somnambulists a developement of sensi- 
bility of which we can have no conception. They are sus- 
ceptible of receiving influence from every thing that sur- 
rounds them, and principally from living beings. They are 
not only affected by physical emanations, or the effluvia of 
living bodies ; but also, to a degree much more surprising, 
by the thoughts and sentiments of those who surround them, 
or who are busy with them. 

If you are alone with a somnambulist, and any one is per- 
mitted to enter, the somnambulist generally perceives it. 
Sometimes the person who enters is indifferent to him ; at 
other times he feels for him either a s}-mpathy or an antipa- 
thy. In either case it diminishes his concentrativeness. If 
he entertains a sympathy, his attention is divided ; if an an- 
tipathy, he suffers. If the stranger is incredulous, and sus- 
pects the sincerity of the somnambulist, or makes a jest of 
what he sees, the somnambulist is troubled and loses his 
lucidity. If many witnesses surround the somnambulist and 
are occupied about him, the fluid of each one of them acts 
upon his organization, and as these various fluids are not in 
harmony, he experiences discordant effects from them. If 
you have around you only the persons who desire the cure 
of the patient, and if you magnetize them all to put them in 
communication, and all are in good health, the somnambu- 
list may not be in the least disquieted. But it will be diffi- 
cult to prevent many of the spectators from often occupying 



70 OF SOMNAMBULISM, [CHAP. IV. 

themselves with other things besides the patient. For, every 
time they occupy themselves with something else, they will 
break the communication, and these interruptions produce 
shocks, (secousses,) which disturb the tranquil reign of som- 
nambulism. There is sometimes among the spectators, 
some one who inspires the somnambulist with a particular 
affection, of the most exalted kind ; and that would turn him 
aside from his attention to himself; the will of the magnet- 
izer being no longer active, he does not exert the same con- 
trol, and the somnambulism takes an irregular character. 
The greater part of somnambulists, even in the hands of 
good magnetizers, have lost a portion of their faculties, be- 
cause many persons in succession have been permitted to 
see them. 

At the close of the preceding chapter I said that in a 
magnetic treatment, there ought to be only one will active,, 
to which all the others ought to be subordinate. This rule 
is especially to be observed when you have somnambulists. 
M. de Puysegur has not failed to call attention to this ; and 
yet many well-informed magnetizers do not pay sufficient 
regard to it. As to those who try it for the first time, it is 
almost impossible that they should feel the importance of it, 
and that even the desire of enlightening themselves upon 
the means of doing more good, should not mislead them 
from the path which would conduct them most surely to the 
accomplishment of their object. 

It is proper to enter into some details upon this head. 

When a person who has no experience, obtains for the 
first time some of the singular effects which generally pre- 
cede lucid somnambulism, he thinks it would be useful to 
get acquainted with an experienced magnetizer. If he finds 
one, he entreats him to come and assist at the sittings, to 



CHAP. IV. AND ITS MANAGEMENT. 71 

give him instructions. This conduct, which is inspired by a 
very praiseworthy motive, is nevertheless in need of precau- 
tion, and I cannot point out the precautions except by recal- 
ling attention to two phenomena, the reality of which a great 
number of magnetic experiments demonstrate. 

1st, Somnambulists, or the persons who are in a mag- 
netic state, feel the influence of those who approach them, 
especially of such as have an active will. 

2d. Persons who are in the habit of magnetizing, natu- 
rally emit the fluid from them, and act powerfully, even 
without a determinate intention, upon those who are in the 
magnetic state. 

From this it follows that the presence of a magnetizer is 
never a matter of indifference, and that in certain circum- 
stances it might be more hurtful than that of one who comes 
out of curiosity. If the magnetizer disapproves of any of 
your processes, if he counteracts your action in any manner 
whatever, he will do an injury to your somnambulist. This 
inconvenience can always be avoided if he provides against 
it, if he is attentive to himself, and if, on your part, you 
take the necessary precautions. 

When then you desire to consult with a magnetizer, and 
call him in to see your somnambulist, this magnetizer must 
put himself in communication with you, must submit his 
will to yours, must beware of acting alone, must occupy 
himself only in concurring to the good you wish to do, must 
not seek the reason of the processes you employ, must not 
pretend to direct you in any thing, so that nothing shall affect 
your somnambulist except through you. When the sitting 
Is ended, the magnetizer can make his observations and give 
you advice ; and, after having reflected upon the principles 
he has given you, you can adopt and make use of them. 



72 OF SOMNAMBULISM, [CHAP. IV. 

In my Critical History, book first, chapter fourth, I have 
related what took place the first time I produced somnam- 
bulism. I was a mere novice. I invited a magnetizer, a 
pupil of Mesmer, and who had great power, to instruct me 
how to make my somnambulist speak. He came to see him ; 
he did not touch him, and yet he exercised such an influence 
upon him, that the course of the somnambulism was entire- 
ly deranged, and my young somnambulist who had exhibit- 
ed for several days the most extraordinary clairvoyance, 
ceased to manifest his different faculties, to acquire suddenly 
that of expressing himself by words, and made no progress 
afterwards. May the instruction which I now give, cause 
others to avoid the numerous faults I committed before I ac- 
quired experience of my own ! 

I might here enter into many details relative to the essen- 
tial character of somnambulism, the general cause of the 
innumerable modifications it presents, the distinction between 
the states of wakefulness, sleep, and delirium ; and to the 
transitions from one of these states to another ; but I re- 
solved to abstain from all theory, and limit myself to the 
giving of precepts, which I believe correct, without explain- 
ing the reasons of my adopting them. I will then simply 
say: 

If your patient becomes a somnambulist, have near you 
only the witness whom you admitted at the commencement, 
and who is in communication with you. Refuse absolutely 
to show him to any curious person, and let no one approach 
him except when it will be of utility, and with the precau- 
tions which I shall soon indicate. Put no questions to him 
except such as relate to his health, and graduate these ques- 
tions so as not to fatigue him. Do not seek for wonderful 
effects : refrain, by all means, from relating those which 



CHAP. IV. AND ITS MANAGEMENT. 73 

you have seen. You can give yourself this satisfaction 
when the treatment is ended : but until then you ought to 
think only of the cure. 

If your somnambulist prescribes remedies for himself, you 
wi]l contrive with him the means proper to be followed to 
induce him to take them when he is awakened. 

If among the remedies there are some that you cannot 
procure, or whose application presents too great difficulty, 
you will induce him to substitute others. If he requests you 
to magnetize him at an hour or under circumstances which 
render it impossible to you, you will explain to him the rea- 
sons that oppose it, and determine him to search out the 
means of supplying your presence, at the moment when he 
thinks it would be necessary to him. 

Some somnambulists, after having announced that their 
condition is very serious, consider it with a sort of indiffer- 
ence, and do not wish to give themselves the trouble of 
looking for a remedy. Others manifest a reluctance to ex- 
amine their disease. The sight of the disorder which they 
perceive in their internal organs, affrights them. When 
this is the case, you must not partake of the fears of your 
somnambulist. You must exert the power of your will to 
determine him to a very scrupulous examination of his com- 
plaint, to consider without affright the interior of his own 
body, as if it were not his own, and to make efforts to dis- 
cover the means of cure. If you are calm, and know how 
to exert your will, your somnambulist will certainly obey 
you ; he will recover himself, and explain to you the actual 
danger, and the means of removing it. Perhaps you will 
not succeed in curing him ; but you will procure him all 
the soothing influence possible, and you will know to what 
you ought to direct your efforts. Do not lose hope, even 



74 OF SOMNAMBULISM, [CHAP. IV. 

when he assures you that his disease is incurable. Som- 
nambulists have often said at the first sittings, that it was 
impossible to rescue them from death, and afterwards have 
found the means of restoration to health. 

When your somnambulist gives you a description of his 
disease, you must listen without interrupting him. You may 
afterwards request him to explain more clearly and more 
in detail, what you were not able to understand. You may 
interrogate him about things which you ought to be ac- 
quainted with in order to perform your own duty well, but 
you should go no further. Ask him no anatomical ques- 
tions. He perceives the seat of his own disorder ; he sees 
the lesion which exists in one part, but it is rare that he 
sees the situation, the form, and the tissue of his organs, 
especially of those which are not affected. If you make 
him talk beyond this, you will obtain from him only vague 
and perhaps erroneous views. He will not make a mistake 
either in foretelling a crisis, in pointing out a remedy, or in 
describing the effects it will produce : but he could easily 
give you explanations, which would be ridiculous in the ratio 
of the interest you display in hearing them. You do not 
interrogate your somnambulist to dissipate your doubts, for 
you ought not to have doubts ; if you have, you would mag- 
netize very badly : nor is it to satisfy your curiosity, for this 
would withdraw you from the principal object : nor is it, 
finally, to acquire a knowledge of physiology, anatomy or 
medicine ; for, what a somnambulist says, is not applicable 
to any but himself. Confine yourself to the knowledge of 
what is requisite for his restoration, and take care not to let 
his imagination dwell upon things foreign to this object. If 
he busies himself about persons absent, bring him back to 
what concerns himself, without permitting yourself to won- 



CHAP. IV.] AND ITS MANAGEMENT. 75 

der at the faculty he possesses of seeing at a distance, and 
without seeking new proofs of this faculty. 

Some circumstances authorize the magnetizer to admit 
some one to his treatment : there are also some which make 
it his duty to do it. I will give examples, and show how 
one ought to conduct himself in such cases. If your som- 
nambulist often mentions to you a person who interests him, 
and desires you to bring him in, and you see no inconvenience 
in doing it, you may yield to his wish. Thus a woman in 
the magnetic state might be continually dwelling upon her 
daughter, whose state of health gives her anxiety, and to 
whom she wishes to give advice : do not refuse to let her 
enter, and put her in communication. The same might be 
said of a husband, or an intimate friend. 

If your somnambulist gives proofs of remarkable lucidity, 
and affirms that he is able to know the disease of another, 
as well as his own, and if a consultation would not fatigue 
him, you could consent to it, in order to render service to 
one who desires it, and has confidence. But these consul- 
tations ought to be rare, and you ought never to permit two 
to be held the same day. You ought also to avoid trusting 
the direction of many patients at a time to a somnambulist. 
He can hardly take the same interest in all, identify himself 
alternately with each, and manage them well. As to the 
rest, it depends upon the faculties of the somnambulists.* 
In all cases, it is necessary to avoid fatiguing them. 

Before introducing a patient to your somnambulist, you 
will let him touch something that the patient has worn, so 



* The sensibility, the clairvoyance, the power of attention, differ 
prodigiously in different somnambulists, and in the same somnam. 
bulists, at various times. 



76 OF SOMNAMBULISM, [CHAP. IV. 

that he may tell you whether he feels any repugnance to 
it, and whether he sees any danger in being put in commu- 
nication with him. When you have introduced the patient, 
you will require of him to speak only of his health, and if 
the conversation takes another turn, you will oppose it. 

You will not permit any one to give your somnambulist 
any token of gratitude ; he should not be moved by any 
other desire than that of doing good. 

You will not suffer your somnambulist to be magnetized 
indiscriminately by any person. The somnambulists who 
are in communication with several magnetizers, end by los- 
ing their lucidity. 

If indispensable business forces you to interrupt the treat- 
ment of your somnambulist, have an understanding with him 
to find some one to supply your place. Should the inter- 
ruption be only for a few days, the magnetizer taking your 
place, should act only in your name, according to your 
views and your method, and under your direction. 1[ the 
interruption is to be of long continuance, you should give up 
your somnambulist entirely. 

If your somnambulist has caprices, you will oppose them 
by letting him know your will, without dispute. Never suf- 
fer him to get the upper hand of you. You ought to yield 
all that will conduce to his good, and resist his fantastic no- 
tions. You are for him an attentive and benevolent, but just 
and inflexible Providence. 

If your somnambulist has pangs of conscience (peines mo- 
rales) which aggravate his malady, seek with him the 
means of easing them. You will console him, and profit by 
his confidence to soften his chagrin, and destroy the cause. 
If he has any inclinations which you disapprove of, employ 
your ascendancy in vanquishing them. 



CHAP. IV.] AND ITS MANAGEMENT. 77 

You must avoid most carefully, penetrating into the se- 
crets of your somnambulist, when it is not evidently useful 
to him to have these secrets known to you. I need not add 
that if he tells you things which he would not have told you 
in the ordinary state, you will never permit yourself to im- 
part it to any person, not even to your most intimate friend. 

I have already said, that if the somnambulist prescribes 
for himself, remedies which appear improper for his state, 
the magnetizer ought not to depend upon his first sugges- 
tion. I ought to insist upon this point. 

It is infinitely rare that a somnambulist orders for himself 
a remedy which would be injurious to him, and mistakes in 
regard to the doses ; yet this may happen, for there are in- 
stances of it; and though it happen but once in a thousand 
times, it would be a sufficient reason for taking the greatest 
precautions. I am going to explain the possible causes of 
mistakes, and the means of preventing the consequences. 

The state of somnambulism is not always accompanied 
with a perfect clairvoyance ; and that clairvoyance, when 
it is manifested in the most surprising manner, is often rela- 
tive to a certain order of ideas, and variable in its intensity. 
For the proper exercise of it, the somnambulist must con- 
centrate his faculties upon a single object, without distrac- 
tion, without trouble, without the intervention of any foreign 
influence to change the direction of his mind. It is neces- 
sary that the interest he takes in the object which occupies 
his mind, should determine him to make efforts of attention, 
to vanquish his indolence, and free himself from all the pre- 
judices of his ordinary state. One might tell me that the 
interest which the somnambulist takes in his own health, 
will prevail with him over every other consideration : that 
he will see his own body more distinctly than any thing 



78 OF SOMNAMBULISM, fcHAP. IV. 

else : and if there be in him an instinctive faculty, he will 
exercise it upon his own wants. This would appear to be 
the case, but it is not always so. 

Many somnambulists, either through vanity or excess of 
benevolence, are more fond of being busy about others than 
about themselves. Others are unwilling to examine their 
own disease and the consequences it may have ; others 
again seem to set little value upon their cure ; they think 
they shall be more happy, when their souls shall be freed 
from the bondage of matter. The magnetizer, instead of 
being amazed at this species of exaltation, should employ 
all the power of his will to bring it to an end, and to induce 
the somnambulist to be occupied only with his own health. 
All that I have said in this chapter tends to show the im- 
portance of these principles, and if my readers have confi- 
dence in me, they will keep themselves free from enthusi- 
asm, which is much more dangerous than incredulity. 

But suppose a somnambulist is occupied only about his 
own physical state, and his own cure; suppose his clairvoy- 
ance is real, and he speaks from his actual perceptions, and 
not from anterior impressions ; he may nevertheless com- 
mit an error in the treatment he prescribes for himself. 
This is owing to a cause to which it is proper to call atten- 
tion. 

It often happens that a patient when put into a state of 
somnambulism, is afflicted at the same time with several 
very dangerous diseases ; and that the treatment which is 
proper for one, is not proper for another. The somnambu- 
list at first is employed upon the organ the most affected, 
the most severe and painful malady ; he fixes his attention 
upon that which gives him the most uneasiness; and in 
consequence prescribes remedies for himself, without exam- 



CHAP. IV.] AND ITS MANAGEMENT. 79 

ining whether they are not otherwise injurious. I have 
lately seen an instance of this. A somnambulist whose 
lungs were affected, and whose stomach was much impaired, 
ordered for her stomach, a remedy which would have prob- 
ably aggravated the disease of the lungs. The magnetizer 
made some observations to her about it ; she agreed that 
these observations were just ; she put off the use of the 
remedy she had prescribed for herself; and fifteen days 
afterwards she cried out of her own accord, " How glad I 
am that you did not permit me to take the medicine I thought 
of taking ; now the state of my lungs allows me to make 
use of it." She was in fact cured. She would not have 
been, if the magnetizer had been less prudent. It may be 
laid down as a general rule, that when the somnambulist is 
attacked by several diseases, he is naturally induced to fix his 
attention upon that which appears to him the most serious. 

Some precautions will now be given by which you may 
be sure of preventing the dangers springing from too much 
precipitation, or from blind confidence. 

When your somnambulist prescribes for himself a remedy 
which appears to be unsuitable to his condition, you will 
make your objections to him ; you will engage him to exam- 
ine the state of his organs successively, and with the 
greatest attention, and give you an account of them. You 
will request him to explain the reasons which have induced 
him to choose the remedy in question, and to describe accu- 
rately the effects he anticipates from it. You will present 
him the medicine and make him touch and taste it. You 
will request him to tell what a dose should be, not only by 
the name of the measure or weight, but by showing you 
the quantity which he wishes to take. If, after all these 
precautions, he persists, you may depend upon him. 



80 OF SOMNAMBULISM, [CKAF. IV. 

It seems impossible lo me that, in the state of somnambu- 
lism, an individual should entertain the criminal project of 
putting an end to his own existence ; and I could not believe 
that, after having carefully examined a deleterious sub- 
stance, he would not reject it. Yet if it should happen that 
the prescription of a somnambulist may put his life in im- 
minent danger, the magnetizer, it is evident, ought not to 
conform to it. Repeated proofs of great clairvoyance and 
purity of intention, are doubtless powerful motives of con- 
fidence. But they do not give us the entire certainty, 
which alone may authorize us to make use of an unknown 
means, where an error would be attended with fatal conse- 
quences.* 

Somnambulists often prescribe for themselves remedies 
which they have heard spoken of, or of which they have 
formerly made trial ; in place of which one might substitute 
others much more efficacious. You should then call their 
attention to that which appears more proper for them, and 
discuss the motives of their choice. 

* An epileptic patient who was under magnetic treatment at the 
Saltpetriere Hospital, declared the only means of curing her, would 
be to excite in her, in the most critical circumstances, and by violent 
means, a sudden fright, which would naturally put her life in the 
greatest danger. For three months she insisted upon the same 
thing. They finally resolved to follow her advice, and the result 
was a cure. But they who did this were able physicians. They 
knew the desperate state of the patient ; they had never seen her 
make mistakes ; they judged that the shock indicated might produce 
a salutary crisis, which could not be obtained by any other means ; 
and their profession authorized them to calculate the chances of 
danger and success. A magnetizer, who was not a physician, 
would not have been able to assume such a responsibility. 



CHAP. IV.] AND ITS MANAGEMENT. 81 

Many things might be added in relation to the direction 
of somnambulists ; but I think they will be naturally deduced 
from the principles which I have laid down.^ 

I return to the manner of applying the processes when 
somnambulism has been induced. 

The somnambulist always indicates the processes which 
are proper for him ; so that there can be no uncertainty 
about them. These processes are sometimes very laborious 
and very fatiguing to the magnetizer ; they demand from 
him patience, courage, and devotedness : yet they are indis- 
pensable to develope and happily terminate a crisis essential 
to the cure ; but this is very seldom. The greater part of 
the time, nature labors alone during somnambulism, and 
you have no need of doing any thing more than to hold the 
thumbs of the somnambulist, or place your hand upon his 
knees, or even to be busy about him. 

You need not magnetize him longer than he judges use- 
ful, on the days, and at the hour he intimates. If it is es- 
sential not to interrupt a crisis at its commencement, it is 
often injurious to prolong it beyond the necessary time. 

There are somnambulists who fear the impression of too 
strong a light. I have seen some of them who caused 
themselves to be bandaged across the eyes ; but there are 
others who experience fatigue by closing the eye-lids, and 
who request to have their eyes opened. The magnetizer 
succeeds in doing this by making passes across the eyes, 
without its diminishing the intensity of somnambulism. 

The somnambulist then seems to be in his natural state ; 
but it is necessary to watch over him with the precautions 
he indicates. There are cases when this non-apparent 
somnambulism can be very useful, as we shall soon see. 



82 OF SOMNAMBULISM, [CHAP. IV. 

When we wish to ask the somnambulist a question, it is 
necessary to explain our will by words. Good somnambu- 
lists understand the will without our speaking to them. 
But why should we employ this mode when there is no 
need of it ? It is an experiment, and it is a rule which 
every one ought to adopt, to interdict all experiment. I 
agree that there are cases where it is expedient to employ 
only the influence of the will. For instance, there may be 
near you a third person, and you perceive your somnam- 
bulist, who thinks himself alone with you, about to say 
things which this third person ought not to know ; you will 
impose silence by your will. 

At the close of the sitting, when you wish to waken your 
somnambulist, you will first make passes along the legs to 
free the head, then you will make some across the eyes to 
open them, saying to him, wake ! The eyes often remain 
shut after the somnambulist is awakened. You will bring 
them from this condition, by patiently passing your fin- 
gers many times across them. Then you will disperse the 
fluid from the head, and from the rest of the body, by 
passes made crosswise at a distance, in order to scatter and 
shake it off. You will have the precaution to continue this 
until your somnambulist shall be perfectly roused from sleep. 

It is of the very greatest consequence to establish a line 
of demarkation, well defined, between the state of somnam- 
bulism, and the natural state of wakefulness. The som- 
nambulist, when he is awakened, ought to preserve nothing, 
positively nothing, of the sensations which he experienced, 
nor of the ideas which occupied him in somnambulism. 
Somnambulism, prolonged beyond the necessary time, im- 
parts a nervous susceptibility which is attended with great 
inconveniences ; it ought to cease after the cure. If it 



CHAP. IV.] AND ITS MANAGEMENT. 83 

should continue and renew itself spontaneously, it would 
itself be a disease. 

I have already noticed that it w T ould always be expedient, 
as far as possible, to let the patient remain ignorant that he 
has been a somnambulist ; and that, excepting certain very 
rare cases, it is proper never to repeat what he may have 
uttered. For it would establish between the ideas of the 
natural state, and those of somnambulism, a relation which 
is contrary to the natural order ; and which equally alters 
the habitual faculties, and the somnambulic faculties. If 
you know how to control yourself by your own will, your 
patient will never be informed of any thing which you think 
ought to be kept from him. 

Somnambulists perfectly abstracted, whose interior facul- 
ties have acquired great energy, are often found in a frame 
of mind of which you might avail yourself advantageously 
to make them follow a course of regimen, or to make them 
do things useful for them, but contrary to their habits and 
inclinations. The magnetizer can, after it has been mutu- 
ally agreed upon, impress upon them, while in the somnam- 
bulic state, an idea or a determination which will influence 
them in the natural state, without their knowing the cause. 
For instance, the magnetizer will say to the somnambulist, 
" You will return home at such an hour : you will not go this 
evening to the theatre : you will clothe yourself in such a man- 
ner : you will take your medicines without being obstinate : 
you will take no liquor : you will drink no coffee : you will 
occupy yourself no longer in such a thing : you will drive 
away such a fear : you will forget such a thing." The 
somnambulist will be naturally induced to do what has been 
thus prescribed. He will recollect it without suspecting it 
to be any thing more than a recollection of what you have 



84 OF SOMNAMBULISM, [CHAP. IV. 

ordered for his benefit ; he will have a desire for what you 
have advised him, and a dislike to what you have inter- 
dicted. Take advantage of this empire of your will and of 
this concert with him, solely for the benefit of the patient. 
Your will probably acts merely in modifying his, and you 
might obtain from him the performance of indifferent things 
to which he would devote himself to please you ; but this 
would be contrary to the spirit and design of magnetism. 

You may often find it in your power, while your patient 
is in the somnambulic state, to induce him to take a medi- 
cine for which he has a repugnance. I have seen a lady, 
who had a horror at the sight of leeches, cause them to be 
applied to her feet during somnambulism, and say to her 
magnetizer, " Prevent me from looking at my feet when I 
awake." In fact she never suspected that any one had 
applied leeches to her. 

Many somnambulists are endowed with inconceivable ad- 
dress, and can perform certain operations as well as the best 
surgeons. I am acquainted with a lady, who, in the state 
of somnambulism, opened a swelling beneath her breast, and 
dressed the wound until it was healed. 

This address of somnambulists, can be useful to others as 
well as to themselves, especially when it is accompanied 
with clairvoyance ; there are some cases even, when they 
can render the greatest service. I will instance a midwife 
who, having become a somnambulist during a disease for 
whicj^p caused herself to be magnetized, preserved the 
same faculties after her restoration to health. When she is 
called upon to exercise her profession, if the case appears 
to present any difficulties, she goes to her magnetizer, who 
puts her into somnambulism, and opens her eyes. She de- 
clared to me, that in this state, she could act with much 



CHAP. IV.] AND ITS MANAGEMENT. 85 

more address, strength, and certainty. In January last, she 
in this manner very successfully delivered of three children, 
a woman whose state was very dangerous. /* 

Among the phenomena which somnambulism often pre- 
sents, there is one from which persons might, under certain 
circumstances, derive a great advantage. It is that of ab- 
solute insensibility. There are many somnambulists that 
one could pinch and prick very hard without their feeling 
it. One of the somnambulists that was in the Saltpetriere 
Hospital, received no impression from a bottle of sal volatile 
applied to her nose : and when experiments in magnetism 
were made at the Hotel Dieu Hospital, moxas were applied 
to two somnambulists who were not awakened by them. 
Persons have concluded from these dangerous experiments, 
that if a surgical operation were necessary to a patient 
susceptible of magnetism, it might be done without causing 
pain : and it is true in certain cases. But although this in- 
sensibility is displayed by nearly all somnambulists, which 
have been at the Hotel Dieu and the Saltpetriere, it is far 
from being general. I am even inclined to think it would 
never occur, if the magnetizers did not overcharge their 
subjects, and if they took care to preserve the harmony of 
the system. My somnambulists have never exhibited it to 
me : on the contrary, their sensibility was more delicate 
than in the natural state ; the contact of a body not mag- 
netized was disagreeable to them ; and the touch of a stran- 
ger gave them a great deal of pain. I am also certain that 
somnambulists have experienced convulsions, and have been 
awaked by having been roughly touched by some one who 
was not in communication. 

I know that a magnetizer can by his will paralyze any 
limb of his somnambulist ; but he ought never to permit 

H 



86 OF SOMNAMBULISM, [CHAP. IV. 

himself the trial of this experiment. As to the rest, if a 
patient has need of an operation that is painful, we should 
learn from him whether it ought to be performed during 
somnambulism, or during the natural state, and what pre- 
cautions ought to be taken to insure success. 

The absolute insensibility of the organs of sense and of 
those of motion, united to the exaltation of sentiment and of 
thought, are sometimes symptoms that life is drawing to- 
wards the brain and the epigastrium. The spirit seems 
then to disengage itself from the organs, and the somnambu- 
list becomes independent of the will of the magnetizer. 

This state, to which the name of ecstacy, or magnetic ex- 
altatlon has been given, and which many German authors 
have considered as the most elevated state of magnetism, is 
exceedingly dangerous. You could not suddenly wake one 
who is in it, and if you should succeed in doing it, he would 
remain in a state of excessive weakness, and perhaps of par- 
lysis, which you could not put an end to without great 
exertion. I know not how then to recommend too highly 
to magnetizers to oppose the developement of this crisis. I 
believe even that it would hardly ever present itself, if the 
somnambulist were to busy himself only about his own 
health, and if one were to take care to free the head and to 
re-establish harmony, when he sees the limbs stiffen and 
become insensible. I shall return hereafter to this subject. 

The details into which I have entered, appear sufficient 
to make you acquainted with somnambulism, as it frequently 
presents itself in the course of a magnetic treatment, and of 
the .means of directing it to a useful purpose, and of avoid- 
ing its inconveniences. I have also said with sufficient 
distinctness, that this crisis, if you oppose the workings of na- 
ture, might become as hurtful as it would be salutary if you 



CHAP. IV.] AND ITS MANAGEMENT. 87 

have the wisdom to listen to her and aid her. I know that 
some instances of success obtained by imprudent rashness, 
might be cited ; but these instances are rare. Wise cau- 
tiousness can never be a disadvantage ; and when we desert 
it, we expose ourselves to the greatest dangers. There 
remains, then, nothing essential to say upon the application 
of somnambulism to the treatment of diseases ; and when I 
commenced writing this chapter, it did not enter into my 
plan to go farther.* I resolved to pass over in silence the 
extraordinary phenomena. I thought that those who had 
not seen analogous ones, would regard me as a visionary ; 
and that such a reputation would not only be afflictive to 
me, but might also put an obstacle in the way of my doing 
the good which I wish to do ; for people will be guided 
by the counsels of a man subject to illusions, no more than 
by those of a man void of good faith. But after having 
devoted reflection to it, I thought it my duty to yield to 
more important considerations, and to elevate myself above 
the fears excited by self-love. I am determined then to 

* Various somnambulists exhibit very different phenomena ; and 
the only distinctive and constant character of somnambulism, is, the 
existence of a new mode of perception. For instance, there are 
abstracted somnambulists ; there are others who are not. Some of 
them exhibit a species of attraction like magnetic needles ; others 
have only the internal faculties. Some of them have all the sensa- 
tions concentrated at the epigastrium ; others make use of some of 
their senses. There are, finally, some of them, who, after waking, 
preserve for a certain time the recollection of the impressions they 
have received, and of the ideas they have had during the crisis. I 
was obliged to limit myself to explain what takes place most com- 
monly, and to teach what it is necessary to know to assist nature, 
and to derive from somnambulism the greatest advantage. 



88 OF SOMNAMBULISM, [CHAP. IV. 

speak of a very singular state, because it may be presented 
to others as it has been to me and to many of my friends, 
and which it is important to know, that it may not be con- 
founded with the exaltation of which I have already pointed 
out the danger, and that its developement may not be coun- 
teracted. 

I am first going to describe the species of somnambulism 
of which I wish to speak. I will then tell how one ought 
to conduct himself with those who have reached that state, 
if he would derive any advantage from it, to them or to 
himself. 

In this state the circulation is regular, the heat is equal 
through all the body, and the members preserve their sen- 
sibility. The somnambulist is so thoroughly in commu Li- 
cation with his magnetizer as to read his thoughts, but 
receives no impression through the organs of sense. It is 
no longer the sensation which produces ideas ; on the con- 
trary it is the ideas which produce sensations. In the ordi- 
nary state every thing parts from the circumference to 
reach the center ; in this, every thing parts from the center 
to reach the circumference ; and this circumference some- 
times extends to illimitable distances. But it is not this 
which characterizes the degree of somnambulism of which I 
speak. It is the absolute indifference to what appertains to 
terrestrial objects, to the interests of fortune or of reputation. 
It is the absence of the passions and the opinions by which 
one is governed in the ordinary state, and of even all ac- 
quired ideas, of which they can very well preserve the 
recollection, but to which they no longer attach importance. 
It is the little interest that they take in life ; it is a novel 
manner of viewing objects ; it is a quick and direct judg- 
ment, accompanied with an intimate conviction. The som- 



:hap. iv.J and its management. 89 

nambulist appears to have lost the faculties by which we 
are directed ; the impressions and notions which come from 
without, do not reach him : but during the silence which he 
observes in regard to what is foreign to his soul, he feels 
within himself the developement of a new light, whose rays 
are darted upon all that excites in him a real interest. At 
the same time the sentiment of conscientiousness is aroused, 
and determines the judgment which he ought to form. Thus 
the somnambulist possesses at the same time the torch which 
gives him his light, and the compass that points out his way. 
This torch and this compass are not the product of som- 
nambulism ; they are always in us ; but the distracting 
cares of this world, the passions, and above all pride and 
attachment to perishable things, prevent us from perceiving 
the one, and consulting the other. 

When the somnambulist has reached this degree of ex- 
altation, his manner of speaking is almost always different 
from that which he has in his ordinary state. His diction 
is pure and simple, elegant and precise ; his manner unim- 
passioned ; every thing announces in him a state of tran- 
quillity, a distinct view of that of which he speaks, and an 
entire conviction of its reality. You perceive in his dis- 
course not the least of what is called excitement or enthu- 
siasm ; and I insist on this point, because those who have 
spoken of this state without having seen it, have supposed 
it to have a character opposed to what it really has, and 
which even serves to distinguish it. 

In this new situation, the mind is filled with religious ideas 
with which perhaps it was never before occupied. He sees 
every where the action of Providence. This life appears 
to him only a journey, during which we ought to collect 
what is necessary for us in our everlasting mansions. The 



90 OF SOMNAMBULISM, [CHAP. IV* 

independence of the soul, the liberty of man, immortality, 
are to him evident truths. He is convinced that God hears 
us ; that prayer is the most efficacious means of obtaining 
his aid, and dissipating the ills around us, or at least of 
turning them to our advantage. Taking care to make our 
labors on earth, as well as the troubles we experience, ac- 
ceptable to God, appears a means of converting them into 
good works. 

Charity is for him the first of virtues ; that which affords 
us the easy means of expiating our sins, and which often 
suffices to obtain their remission. He is so much penetrated 
with it, that he forgets himself for others, and no sacrifice 
for the sake of doing good costs him too much. This sen- 
timent of benevolence is extended to all, and he makes sup- 
plications for those who hold opinions the most opposite to 
his own. Sometimes the prodigious difference he perceives 
between his new manner of viewing objects, and that which 
he had in his ordinary state, the new lights which shine for 
him, the new faculties with which he finds himself endowed, 
the immensity of the horizon which is spread before his 
eyes, persuade him that he is inspired ; what he says seems 
to be dictated by a voice from within ; what he sees is 
shown to him ; he regards himself as the organ of a supe- 
rior intelligence ; but this does not excite his vanity. He 
delights to reflect in silence, and he speaks to you only to 
say things useful for your moral direction. 

Happy the man who has chanced to meet a somnambu- 
list of this kind ; for there is no means of bringing forth 
from an ordinary somnambulist, the faculties I have just de- 
scribed. It is a horologe fabricated by nature : we can 
easily disturb its movements, but we can neither set it ago- 
ing, nor regulate it, because we are unacquainted with its 



OHAP. IV.] AND ITS MANAGEMENT. 91 

springs. We must consult it, but we must not permit our- 
selves to touch it for the purpose of accelerating or retard- 
ing its motion. 

If then you see the state of which I am speaking manifest 
itself, you should listen attentively to your somnambulist : 
you will put no question ; for the moment you design to di- 
rect him, you will cause him to leave the sphere in which 
he is ; you will turn aside his faculties from the object for 
which they are destined, and transport him into an immense 
field of illusions. The power of your will, however great 
it may be, cannot force him to see beyond the circle in 
which he is placed. If you mingle your ideas with his, 
your conjectures with his perceptions, you will obscure his 
clairvoyance : the only mode for you to pursue, is to favor 
its developement and its application : it is the confidence and 
the simplicity that you show, not by your words, but by the 
disposition of your soul, which has need of no expression in 
order to be perceived and recognised by him. 

Without doubt, some person will say to me, But where 
is the proof that this state of my somnambulist is not owing 
to a peculiar disposition of his imagination, which causes him 
to mistake chimerical ideas for correct notions ? Ought I to 
withdraw my reason to grant him a blind confidence ? And 
how shall I assure myself of the truth of what he tells me, 
if I do not combat his opinions in order to hear his replies, 
and appreciate their correctness and their worth ? 

I will answer you in this manner. I am very far from 
advising you to renounce your reason in order to adopt the 
ideas and follow the instructions of a somnambulist. On 
the contrary, your reason and good sense must combine the 
whole, and your decision must spring from their proper ex- 
ercise. But it is necessary to point out two conditions, 



92 OF SOMNAMBULISM, [cHAP. IVY 

While your somnambulist is giving utterance to his ideas, 
you will let him speak without interruption. You will not 
only make no objection, but you will banish from your mind' 
all those which suggest themselves to you. You will not 
exert your will to influence or direct him. You will not 
demand of him an explanation of what he has told you, ex- 
cept when you have not well understood. You will not de- 
sire to know what he wishes to teach you of his own accord. 
You will also try not to be astonished at what appears to 
you extraordinary. You will not seek to penetrate into 
that which appears incomprehensible. You will, above all, 
avoid putting your somnambulist to the proof, and taking 
indirect means to ascertain his clairvoyance. You will lis- 
ten to him with self-forgetfuiness, confidence and simplicity, 
as a child listens to a mother when she relates things to 
form his heart and his understanding, while amusing his 
mind. But after he has re-entered the ordinary state, and 
you are away from him, you will recapitulate all he has 
told you ; you will examine the connexion of his ideas ; 
you will appreciate the correctness of his reasonings ; you 
will weigh the degree of utility in his instructions. You 
can then indulge your astonishment at the penetration with 
which he has read your heart, at the sincerity of his wishes 
for your real happiness, at the exactitude which he has 
shown you while speaking of a passed event with which he 
was not acquainted ; at the probability of his previsions of 
the future, which it is useful for you to know. But this 
astonishment should not bring on your conviction. The 
more marvellous a fact is, the more we ought to fear being 
seduced by appearances, to mistrust the impression they 
first make upon us, and search out the circumstances that 
may give them a natural explanation. Many somnambu- 



CHAP. IV. AND ITS MANAGEMENT. 93 

lists, when their faculties were exalted, have been known 
to read the thoughts of others, to have previsions, to be ex- 
empt from vanity, and moved solely by the desire of 
enlightening others ; and yet to be the dupes of illusions 
which are mingled with the most luminous perceptions. 
You ought then to ascertain that his opinions are not pro- 
duced by old impressions on the memory, by the prejudices 
of early youth, by lectures or conversations which have 
formerly acted temporarily upon his mind ; finally, that no 
exterior influence has contributed to impart a peculiar char- 
acter to his manner of viewing things.* If in all he tells 
you there is nothing which cannot be verified, you will evi- 
dently perceive that he is not deceived, that the torch by 
which he is enlightened has not been vacillating. Then 
your confidence will be excited by a train of facts and ob- 
servations which determine your reasoning ; and not by 
discourses more or less eloquent ; by exhortations more or 

* There are somnambulists who retrace with surprising facility 
the ideas which they received in their infancy, and upon whom these 
ideas exercise more control than those which they have since ac- 
quired. A very lucid somnambulist magnetized by M. de Lausanne, 
afforded me a remarkable instance of this phenomenon. She was a 
woman about forty years old. She was born at St. Domingo, from 
whence she came to France at the age of six or seven years, and she 
had never afterwards been among Creoles. As soon as she was in 
the somnambulic state, she absolutely spoke nothing but the pecu- 
liar dialect (patois) which she had learned from the negress who 
had nursed her. In these recollections of infancy, in this re- 
turn towards the first years of life, we must search for the cause of 
the opinions of some somnambulists. There are some of them who 
seem to forget the notions they have acquired by reason and observa- 
tion, as they retrograde by degrees towards the period when their 
minds were but as smooth tablets, 



94 OF SOMNAMBULISM, [CHAP. IV. 

less affecting ; by phenomena which are inexplicable, but 
which are seen elsewhere ; nor by images and descriptions 
more or less calculated to move us. It should be only after 
this examination, made in the spirit of reflection and in sol- 
itude, that you should form your judgement. It is essential 
that your belief should be supported by facts well demon- 
strated to your own mind, so that no objection may after- 
wards present itself which has not been settled beforehand ; 
because this belief, far from being a fugitive opinion, ought 
in certain respects to decide your conduct. 

Then, if it happens that your somnambulist enters several 
times in succession into the same state, you will continue to 
hear him without any expression of thankfulness, or appro- 
bation, but with a desire to profit by what he will tell you ; 
and perhaps ycii will find in him a guide who will not lead 
you astray. He will, at least, convince you of the existence 
of an order of things, different from the present order, and 
will bring you acquainted with the source of pure and dura- 
ble felicity, which nothing external, terrestrial, and tran- 
sient, can impart. 

The species of somnambulism which I have described, is 
extremely rare, and many persons will think that in a work 
designed to teach the use of magnetism, I ought to have ab- 
stained from speaking of it, because there is little probability 
of its being presented to my readers. To this, I answer, 
that if this state is rare, it is our own fault ; it doubtless sup- 
poses an unusual developement of the soul's faculties ; but 
this developement frequently takes place, and nearly all 
those who have practised magnetism have had it more or 
less in their power to observe it. If it has not been attended 
with that pure lucidity of which I have seen examples, it is 
because thev have disturbed or turned aside the natural ten- 



CHAP- IV.] AND ITS MANAGEMENT. 95 

dency. I am persuaded, that out of ten somnambulists, who, 
left to themselves, would reach this state, nine have been 
thrust into a false direction. Their astonishing faculties 
have then made them run over a thousand paths in the vast 
domain of the imagination. Hence it has resulted that 
among those who have had opportunity to see this extraor- 
dinary somnambulism, some liave regarded it as the result 
of a communication with spirits ; some, as a gift of prophe- 
cy ; others, as the effect of the soul's exaltation ; others, 
again, as a transient insanity. Sometimes we perceive in 
it illusions of the strangest kind, without any real founda- 
tion ; sometimes a mixture of superstitious notions with very 
astonishing previsions ; sometimes metaphoric language and 
incoherent images ; and people have formed various judg- 
ments of this state, according as they were most struck with 
what was presented of light and truth, or of darkness and 
illusion. Nothing of this would have existed, if the som- 
nambulist had been well directed, or rather, if he had not 
been led astray by the ignorance, the vanity, the curiosity 
of his magnetizer ; if the natural chain of his ideas had not 
been interrupted, to occupy him in subjects which were ab- 
solutely alien to him. 

The greater part of my readers will, without doubt, judge 
that I labor under an illusion in relation to the phenomena 
of which I have just given an account ; and I ought the 
more to expect it, because I would not myself believe until 
I had been an eye-witness : I did not perceive their reality 
till very late, and long after I had published my Critical 
History : but then they were frequently renewed before 
my eyes, and I am well convinced that I should have seen 
them sooner, if I had conducted myself with more single- 
ness of purpose. Those who will follow the instructions I 



96 OF SOMNAMBULISM, [CHAP. IV. 

have given, will have the same happiness that I have had ; 
and this consideration alone has determined me to give them 
precautions, by taking which they will profit by the favor- 
able circumstances, and not let slip an opportunity which 
does not occur when we search for it, but which we may 
seize when it comes in our way. 

I ought further to mention that this state is rarely much 
prolonged ; and that the magnetizer has no power whatever 
to reproduce it, when it has ceased to manifest itself. When 
the somnambulist has told you what he deemed important 
to tell you, his clairvoyance ceases, or at least is no longer 
engaged upon things of the same nature. You must profit 
by the moment. 

I do not pretend in any manner to discover the causes of 
the phenomena about which I have spoken. Every one 
can explain them as he chooses. The wisest way is not to 
search for an explanation. For in our waking state we 
can very well recognise by the effects, the existence of a 
new facultv in somnambulists, but we can no more deter- 
mine the nature of it, than they who are blind from birth, 
can conceive the phenomena of vision. 

Perhaps some one will ask of me, whether the somnam- 
bulists of whom I speak, could not give us some light on the 
dogmas of religion, on the choice between the various forms 
of worship, and on certain questions which have unhappily 
divided mankind. I can merely answer that I do not believe 
they can. But it is too essential an object to forewarn my 
readers against a curiosity, always useless and often dan- 
gerous, for me to neglect adding some observations in this 
place to the principles I have already laid down : these 
details will also serve to make them the better distinguish 



CHAP. IV.] AND ITS MANAGEMENT. . 97 

the species of somnambulism to which I have called their 
attention. 

I have said that the somnambulist is illuminated by a light 
which our spirit received from God at the moment of its 
existence. This light, anterior to human education, shows 
to man that which is the foundation of all religion, as the 
conscience unveils to him that which is the foundation of 
all morals ; but it teaches him revealed dogmas no more 
than it does positive laws. 

What are the truths which are shown with evidence to 
the somnambulist? The existence, the omnipotence, the 
bounty of the Creator ; the immortality of the soul ; the 
certainty of another life, the recompense of the good, the 
punishment of the evil which we have done in this ; Provi- 
dence, the necessity and efficacy of prayer, the pre-eminence 
of charity over the other virtues ; to which is joined the 
consoling idea that those who have preceded us on earth, 
and who have merited the enjoyment of eternal happiness, 
hear our wishes, take an interest in us, and may be our inter- 
cessors before God ; the profound conviction that God never 
refuses to enlighten us in what we ought to know, when, 
submitted to his will, we ask aid of him ; the firm persua- 
sion of the utility of worship, which, by uniting men to ren- 
der homage to God, prescribes rules and practice to all, by 
which they pray in concert to obtain the blessings of heaven. 
These are the ideas common to all religious somnambulists. 
They go not beyond that, which is to say to you, in a gen- 
eral manner, to fulfil the duties which religion imposes upon 
you. But when you are once imbued with these principles, 
will you fail to have the means of instruction, to know what 
you ought to believe and what you ought to practise ? 
i 



98 OF SOMNAMBULISM, [CHAP. IV. 

But, says some one, I would like very much to interro- 
gate my somnambulist, and profit by his knowledge, to dis- 
sipate this or that doubt, to answer this or that objection. 
You will gain nothing : you will even lose the advantages 
you might derive from his lucidity. It is very possible that 
you could make him speak upon all the subjects of your in- 
discreet curiosity ; but in that case, as I have already warned 
you, you will make him leave his own sphere to intro- 
duce him into yours : he will no longer have any other re- 
sources than yourself: he will utter to you very eloquent 
discourses, but they will no more be dictated by the inter- 
nal inspiration, they will be the product of his recollections, 
or of his imagination ; perhaps you will also rouse his van- 
ity, and then all is lost ; he will not re-enter the circle from 
which he has wandered. And how can you suppose that a 
light, which is innate in all men, should throw its rays be- 
yond that of revelation ? Is it not enough that it brings us to 
recognise the advantages of this revelation ? If you are in 
an obscure labyrinth, your guide makes use of his torch ; 
but as soon as he has conducted you to the place where the 
light of the sun is shining, his torch is useless. If, in em- 
barrassing circumstances, you have to choose between dif- 
ficult duties, your somnambulist may enlighten you ; but 
if you say to him, " Is it permitted me to avoid paying such 
a tax ?" he will merely answer, " Consult the laws." 

I know very well that somnambulists have been, and are 
now known to discourse about religion, and even about the 
social organization ; but they do not resemble those of 
whom I have just spoken ; the imagination controlling all 
their other faculties, their manner of utterance, and the ex- 
pression of their features, stamp them as enthusiasts. The 






CHAP. IV.] AND ITS MANAGEMENT. 99 

two states cannot be confounded, if you will but conform to 
the rules I have given. Moreover these somnambulists 
are evidently influenced by the persons who surround 
them, by the circumstances in which they are placed. 
The errors to which they are subject, the illusions of which 
they are the sport, the extravagances which they utter, 
result from a nervous excitement which they would never 
have experienced, if the faculties had been naturally de- 
veloped, in silence, solitude, and freedom from external 
influence.* 



* I have said that the somnambulist, when arrived at the highest 
degree of concentration, sometimes imagines himself to be inspired ; 
but he can impart no idea of the beings to whom he thinks he owes 
this inspiration. When a somnambulist has visions, they ought to 
be considered as phantoms, like those which are witnessed in 
dreams. Bodies only have forms. If spirits could communicate 
with us, it would be by exerting an immediate influence upon our 
souls. Socrates, who believed himself inspired by a good genius, 
affirmed that we could no more see it than any thing else which is 
divine. (See Plutarch ; the Demon of Socrates, section 35. He 
said that we could have an internal voice, because thought is man. 
ifested to us only by language. 

In somnambulism, the sensibility which is proper to the organs 
of the internal life is exalted : from the latent state in which it is, 
it becomes perceptible ; and these organs are then the instruments 
of our soul, as Doctor Bertrand has very well stated it, in his trea- 
tise on Somnambulism. But this new mode of perception may lead 
us into error, as does that which we enjoy in the ordinary state. 
It is then important to distinguish what appertains to the natural 
developement of the intellectual faculties, and the notions furnished 
by the new instruments, from what may be produced by the imagi- 
nation, or by a foreign influence. I have endeavored to impart the 
means to avoid confounding these two classes of phenomena. 






100 OF SOMNAMBULISM, [CHAP. IV. 

Many enlightened men among those who are engaged in 
physiology, and who have some notion of the phenomena of 
magnetism, will not fail to affirm that the state which I 
have described, is only one of the varieties of ordinary som- 
nambulism, which differs from others in the concentration 
of mind upon religious ideas, and that this does not prove 
any thing to establish the truth of the opinions held by those 
who enter into that state. I will not discuss this question, 
because it is not the design of this work to inquire into the 
nature of the magnetic phenomena, nor to prove the truth 
of the notions they impart to us. I have merely intended 
to point out how the peculiar state which I have made 
known, ought to be observed when it occurs, and what line 
of conduct ought to be pursued so as not to trouble or 
change its direction. Those who see it as I have, and take 
the proper precautions, will soon decide for themselves as 
to the degree of confidence to be placed in it. I wished to 
teach the mode of avoiding the errors springing from our- 
selves ; but I do not pretend to point out the sure character- 
istics of truth. I have told when and how the facts might 
be observed, but it is for each one to draw from these facts, 
by the use of his own reason, the consequences which ap- 
pear to him the most probable and the best founded. I will 
merely call attention to the fact, that the doctrine which 
somnambulists, in the highest state of concentration and ab- 
straction, (isolement,) have laid down, is as far removed 
from mysticism as from materialism, as much opposed to 
intolerance as to incredulity ; that it makes no innovations, 
and merely confirms opinions uttered at all times by some 
of the sages ; that far from proscribing philosoph} 7 , it brings 
it into accordance with religion : finally, that whether it be 






CHAP. IV.] AND ITS MANAGEMENT. 101 

regarded as the product of the imagination, or as inspired 
by the internal sentiment, we are forced to agree that the 
consequences flowing from it inspire a high idea of the dig- 
nity of man, favor the happiness of individuals, and tend to 
establish peace and harmony in society. It is pleasant, it 
is delightful, to have one more reason for expecting another 
life, to believe that Providence watches over us, that our 
afflictions, supported with resignation, will have a recom- 
pense ; that all men, the children of a common parent, 
ought to be united by the bonds of charity ; that those who 
have preceded us on earth, hear our wishes, and take an 
interest in us ; and that the good will one day be united in 
a communion of sentiments and enjoyments, where the de- 
lights of a pure affection, and the torch of a truth unob- 
scured, will crown the desires of our souls, which were ere- 
ated for knowledge and love. 

Among the men who are engaged in magnetism, there 
are, unhappily, some materialists. I cannot conceive how 
it is that some of the phenomena of which they have been 
witnesses, such as the power of seeing at a distance, previs- 
ion, the action of the will, the communication of thought 
without the aid of external signs, have not appeared to them 
sufficient proofs of the spirituality of the soul : but, finally, 
their opinion is opposite to mine ; they are sincere, because 
they have no object in sustaining it ; they are better in- 
structed than I in the physical sciences ; my arguments 
cannot change their manner of seeing, and I should be very 
presumptuous, if I flattered myself with the idea of over- 
coming them in the warfare of opposition. Well persuaded 
that they are in error, I ought to wish for new phenomena 
to enlighten their minds. Perhaps if they had observed the 
i* 



102 OF SOMNAMBULISM, [CHAP. IV. 

developement of somnambulism in all its simplicity, if they 
had exercised no influence over their somnambulists, if they 
had not excited their imagination or their vanity in requir- 
ing extraordinary things of them, if they had left them to 
the natural order of their ideas, they would have obtained 
results altogether different. I invite them to follow the 
path I have traced out. It is an experiment worthy of 
their sagacity ; as it is of their courageous frankness, to re- 
tract their first opinions, if they are ever convinced of their 
having embraced an error. 

In relation to the employment of magnetism, and the 
management of somnambulism, I believe I have given all 
the directions necessary to persons who are not already 
enlightened by experience. It all consists in having but a 
single end in view, that of rendering service, of devoting 
yourself to the patient whose treatment you undertake, to 
make an entire sacrifice of personal considerations, to free 
yourself from all self-interest, from all vanity, from all curi- 
osity ; but, I must confess, the requisition is severe. He 
who, by the desire of the family and with the consent of the 
physician, has taken charge of the treatment of a dangerous 
disease, ought to abstain from all other labor except what 
the duties of his condition impose, to be indifferent to the 
pleasantries of worldly men, to be silent in regard to the 
phenomena he witnesses, to renounce almost all diversions, 
to avoid that which may cause lively emotions, to husband 
his strength habitually, so as to employ it when it is re- 
quired, without the fear of fatigue ; finally, to occupy him- 
self continually about the patient who has placed in him his 
confidence, and to consider him as the counterpart of him- 
self. 



CHAP. IV. AND ITS MANAGEMENT. 103 

What shall indemnify him for so much pains, for so 
many sacrifices 1 The satisfaction of having done good : 
there is nothing beyond such enjoyment. If the services 
you have rendered are soon forgotten, if you are exposed 
to pleasantry, to ridicule, and even to the accusation of 
charlatanry, you will remember that you have God as the 
witness of your actions, and that you are happy enough in 
having Him as the only one who designs to charge Himself 
with your reward. 

After what has been said, it may be seen that the prac- 
tice of magnetism requires the possession. of rare qualities, 
and that the love of doing good should be the sole motive 
for engaging in it. It is also evident that great prudence 
should be exercised in the choice of a magnetizer, 



NOTE I. 

I have stated that somnambulists do not every day ex- 
hibit the same degree of clairvoyance ; but I forgot to men- 
tion that they sometimes lose it in respect to this or that 
patient with whom they have long been in communication, 
while at the same time, they show a great deal of it in re- 
lation to others. This anomaly is singular ; but I have 
unfortunately seen many instances of it. I will explain. 

In severe chronic diseases, it happens very frequently 
that, at the first consultation, the somnambulist sees in an 
astonishing manner the anterior state, and the actual state 
of the patient. He points out the remedies which first pro- 
duce alleviation, and some days after, such an amelioration 
as to make us consider the cure as certain. Every thing 



104 OF SOMNAMBULISM, [CHAP. IV. 

he tells is realized, and our confidence appears to be well 
founded. But in the sequel, the condition of the patient 
changes ; he grows worse. The somnambulist continues to 
prescribe remedies which do not produce the intended 
effects. He no longer judges by instinct, by intuition, 
He conjectures ; he gropes in the dark ; he seeks to reme- 
dy the accidents which he had not foreseen, and we find too 
late that we should not have depended upon him blindly* 

It is expedient then to conduct ourselves with the same 
prudence and the same circumspection, during the whole 
continuance of the treatment ; and we ought not to persuade 
ourselves that the somnambulist will commit no mistakes in 
the second or the third month, because he saw well and 
perfectly succeeded during the first days. As soon as the 
somnambulist ceases to announce with exactitude the effects 
of his remedies, and the crises which occur, we ought no 
longer to place dependance on him. It is entirely futile to 
ask the somnambulist for an explanation of what has befal- 
len him. The greater part of the time he is not in condi- 
tion to give it ; but lie ought never to make a mistake in the 
announcement of the effects which will occur. What I have 
now said applies more particularly to somnambulists by 
profession. A somnambulist who is charged with the care 
of one or two patients, with whom he identifies himself, al- 
most always preserves his clairvoyance unimpaired ; or if 
he loses it, he perceives the loss, and gives notice of it. 



NOTE II. 

The treatise on somnambulism published by Doctor Ber- 
trand, is the first work, ex~prqfesso, upon the subject, and the 



CHAP, IV.] AND ITS MANAGEMENT. 105 

only one in which it has been examined in its numerous re- 
lations ; in this publication, we recognise a man profoundly 
versed in the study of medicine, physiology, and metaphys- 
ics. The author compares natural somnambulism, to that 
which is exhibited in many diseases, to that which arises 
from the excitement of the imagination, and to that which 
originates in the magnetic treatment ; and he proves that 
they all present analagous phenomena, and are referrible to 
the same cause. He also reduces to the natural order, 
many facts which have been attributed to supernatural 
causes ; and he arrives at this highly important conclusion, 
that if the world had at first known the phenomena of mag- 
netic somnambulism, they would not have attributed to the 
devil, those which the pretended sorcerers exhibited ; to a 
celestial inspiration, those which were witnessed among the 
prophets of Cevennes ; to the influence of deacon Paris, those 
which were witnessed at Saint Medard. But he seems to 
me to make a mistake in what he says upon the action of 
magnetism, and upon the principles of that action. He has 
searched into physiology for the explanation of phenomena 
which depend upon a different law ; he has generalized the 
observations which were proper for his purpose ; and he 
regarded as illusions facts less surprising than the ones he 
has seen, when they did not accord with his theory. If he 
had been a witness of many of the facts which have passed 
under my eyes ; if he had examined the evidence in favor 
of most of those which have been reported by enlightened 
men, he would not have thrown aside what he calls the pre- 
tensions of the magnetizers. 

I would not have permitted myself to make critical ob- 
servations upon this work, if I had not judged it sufficient- 



106 OF SOMNAMBULISM, [CHAP. IV. 

ly instructive and important to make it a duty to advise the 
reading of it. 

I would also add, that M. Bertrand, though he is not en- 
dowed with great physical energy, has cured by magnetism 
very severe and very inveterate nervous diseases : this does 
not in any degree demonstrate the truth of his ingenious 
theory, but it proves that he possesses many of the quali- 
ties which constitute a good magnetizer. 



APPENDIX 

TO PART FIRST. 



APPENDIX. 



NOTES BY THE TRANSLATOR. 

Note 1. 

The life of the author of this work was translated from 
the elaborate volume of Doctor Foissac, by a lady to whom 
the translator is indebted for other important aid in the 
course of the work. Whoever reads it, will find his confi- 
dence irresistibly drawn towards him, by the evidence of a 
character in which it is delightful to confide. Whatever 
may be our opinion of magnetism, which Deleuze has now 
practised forty-seven years, we cannot refuse to accord to 
him sincerity of mind, and uprightness of intention. His 
various works indicate a careful, scrutinizing spirit, dictated 
by a single-mindedness which rarely leads into mischievous 
error. We trust in him as a guide, because we see his 
caution ; if he does not bring conviction to his theory, he 
drives suspicion from his motive. And he is little to be 
envied, who suffers his antecedent prejudices to influence 
his judgment, when a subject of the first importance, sup. 
ported by the practice and testimony of Deleuze, claims 
from him as a professional man, a serious and careful inves- 
tigation. 

Joseph Philip Francis Deleuze was born at Sisteron, 
Lower Alps, in March, 1753. Desirous of pursuing a 
military career he went to Paris in 1772, intending to study 
mathematics ; but the nominations not having taken place, 
he entered the infantry, with the rank of sub-lieutenant. 
Three years after, the corps in which he served being dis- 
banded, he left the service and devoted himself to the study 

K 



2 APPENDIX. 

of the natural sciences. While residing in the country near 
Sisteron, in 1785, he read for the first time an account of 
the cures performed at Buzancy, in which he put no confi- 
dence ; indeed, he suspected them to be mere fabrications, 
designed to bring ridicule on the partisans of magnetism. 
But hearing that one of his friends, (M. D. d'Aix,) a man of 
cool reason and enlightened mind, had been to see Mesmer at 
M. Servan's, and on his return to Aix had succeeded in pro- 
ducing somnambulism, he resolved to visit him and ascer- 
tain the truth. 

" I performed the journey on foot," said he, " botanizing 
as I went, and arrived at Aix the second day at noon, hav- 
ing walked since four o'clock in the morning. I immediately 
imparted to my friend the object of my journey, desiring 
him to tell me what he thought of the prodigies I had heard ; 
he smiled, and said coolly, " wait and see for yourself; the 
patient will be here in three hours." 

At the end of that time she arrived, and with her several 
persons who were to form a chain. I joined this chain, and 
in a few minutes saw the patient asleep. I looked with 
astonishment, but falling asleep myself in less than fifteen 
minutes, I ceased to observe. During my sleep I talked 
much, and was so much excited as to trouble the chain. Of 
this I had no recollection when I awoke, and found them all 
laughing around me. The next day, instead of sleeping 
myself, I observed others, and desired my friend to teach 
me the processes. On my return home, I attempted to 
magnetize the sick who were in the neighboring villages. 
I was careful not to excite their imaginations, touching them 
under various pretexts, and trying to convince them of the 
salutary effect of gentle frictions. In this way I obtained 
some very curious and beneficial results, which strengthened 
my own faith. In the autumn, being in the city, I applied 
to a young physician, a man of much merit, who to the wis- 
dom that sometimes doubts, added the desire to be convinced 
by actual experience. I requested him to obtain for me 
a patient, and if I effected a cure, he might consider this 
conclusive proof; suggesting at the same time that the sub- 
ject should not be considered in a critical state, lest fatal 



APPENDIX. 3 

consequences might follow from my inexperience. He in- 
troduced to me a young woman who had been sick seven 
years, suffering constantly great pain, and was much bloat- 
ed ; having also a local swelling externally, in consequence 
of the great enlargement of the spleen, which she showed 
to us. She was not able to walk or lie down. I succeed- 
ed in removing the obstruction, circulation was restored, the 
swelling gradually disappeared, and she was enabled to at- 
tend to her customary duties. When I touched her, she 
slept, but did not become a somnambulist. Soon after, an 
intimate friend of mine, (Mr. D.,) magnetized a young girl 
of sixteen, who became a somnambulist. She was the 
daughter of very respectable parents. I assisted in the 
treatment of this patient, and I have never known a more 
perfect somnambulist. She dictated remedies for other sick, 
as well as for herself. She presented most of the phenom- 
ena observed by M. de Puyseger, M. Tardy, and the mem- 
bers of the Society at Strasbourg. Among these were phe- 
nomena I could not have imagined or explained ; I can only 
affirm that I saw them, and after this it is impossible for me 
to jppose the least illusion, or the possibility of deception. 

From this time M. Deleuze neglected no opportunity to 
multiply and observe facts, relieving and curing a great 
number of persons. Two years after, in 1787, he returned 
to Paris, and pursued with renewed ardor, literature, sci- 
ence, philosophy, and particularly botany. In 1798, he 
was chosen assistant naturalist of the Garden of Plants ; and 
when the professors belonging to that establisment united in 
1802 in publishing the Annals of the Museum of Natural 
History, he was appointed secretary of that association. 

M. Deleuze was first known to the learned world by his 
translation of " Darwin's Loves of the Plants," in 1799 ; 
** Thomson's Seasons," in 1801-6, at which time he pub- 
lished his " Eudoxe, or Conversations on the Study of the 
Sciences, Letters, and Philosophy," 2 vols. 8vo., Paris, 
1801. The various knowledge displayed in his writings, 
the excellence of his doctrines, his exquisite judgment, his 
style, so clear, so simple, and at the same time so elegant, 
place him among writers of the first rank ; and his book. 



4 APPENDIX. 

the best of those intended for the instruction of the young, 
has received from the learned, praise the most flattering and 
honorable. Yet notwithstanding his various duties in the 
Garden of Plants, he did not neglect this new order in phys- 
iological phenomena, until now despised by the learned. 
He did not say, like Fontenelle and others, " If I had my 
hand full of truth I should be careful how I opened it ;" but 
during the bloodless contest occurring between the parti- 
sans and enemies of magnetism, he was contented to observe 
in silence ; and waited until the excitement was over, in or- 
der to publish his " Critical History of Magnetism," the re- 
sult of twenty-nine years of investigation and reflection. 
This work appeared in 1813, forming an era in the annals 
of science, and is now translated into all the principal lan- 
guages of Europe. In this work he took a different course 
from those who had preceded him. I shall not, said he, 
permit myself to form any hypothesis, but shall state wliat 
has been witnessed by myself and by men worthy of credit. 
After a general sketch of the history of the discovery and 
the obstacles opposed to it, he devotes a very remarkable 
article to the examination of the proofs on which the new 
doctrine is founded. He first lays down principles of indis* 
putable correctness, concerning the probability of testimony, 
and applies them with equal logic and sagacity to the exam- 
ination of the proofs of magnetism. He shows that its 
effects have been attested by thousands of witnesses, in 
whose ranks are found physicians, savans, and enlightened 
men, who have not been afraid to brave ridicule in obeying 
the voice of conscience, and fulfilling a duty to humanity ; 
that those who have published their opinions, and by far the 
larger number who make their observations in silence, and 
content themselves with avowing their belief, when ques- 
tioned on the subject, have all either witnessed, or actual!} 7 
produced the phenomena of which they speak ; while among 
the adversaries of magnetism, not a man can be found who 
has examined the subject in the only proper way, by ex- 
perimenting for himself with the most scrupulous attention, 
and in exact accordance with the prescribed directions * 



APPENDIX. 5 

With the same powerful reasoning, he has treated of the 
means by which magnetism acts, of the methods of produc- 
ing it, of the influence which the faith of the patients and 
the comparative vigor of magnetizers, may have upon the 
efficacy of the treatment. In speaking of the therapeutical 
application of magnetism, he points out the cases in which 
we may hope for success, and shows that, provided the 
proper precautions are taken, its employment can never be 
injurious. In the description of the phenomena of somnam- 
bulism, we see that the author brings them forward with 
reserve, that he endeavors to rob them of their marvellous 
character, and to show that they are not in contradiction to 
the laws of nature. His explanations of them agree per- 
fectly with the principles of sound physiology. " Let us 
confine ourselves," says he, " to what observation teaches 
us, and take care that w T e do not go beyond it." No one 
has insisted so much as M.Deleuze on the dangers to which 
magnetism may give rise, and the means of avoiding them. 
His advice acquires the more value that it comes from so 
pure a source, and that never in the midst of the most eager 
discussion, has the most envenomed calumny dared to cast 
a doubt on the veracity of the savant, or the honesty of the 
magnetizer. 

The second volume of the " Critical History" fully justi- 
fies the title of the w 7 ork. It is devoted to an analysis and 
examination of the writings which have been published con- 
cerning magnetism, of which there are nearly three hun- 
dred. M. Deleuze has fulfilled this difficult task with great 
discernment. His researches show that the adversaries of 
magnetism have in vain attempted to shake the foundation 
of the doctrine, and the authenticity of the facts on which 
it rests. " It is to be decided," says he, in conclusion, 
" that the science of magnetism should be associated with 
the other branches of human knowledge; that after having 
proved the existence of the agent, we should ascertain the 
part it plays in the operations of nature; and having classed 
its facts according to their degrees of probability, we should 
place them beside the other phenomena of physiology, that 






D APPENDIX. 

we may decide whether they depend upon a new principle, 
or upon a modification of one already known." 

Among the writings which M. Deleuze has published in 
favor of magnetism, we should particularly notice, first, the 
" Answer to the Author of Superstitions and Impostures of 
Philosophers," M. Ralfe Karts de Lyon, in which, after 
having stated objections which seem renewed from the thir- 
teenth century, he examines the causes which opposed the 
re-establishment of religion in France in 1818. " The De- 
fence of Magnetism against the attacks made upon it in the 
Dictionary of Medical Science," Paris, 1819. This work, 
chiefly devoted to an examination and criticism of the arti- 
cle, " Magnetism," of M. Virey, at the same time answers, 
in the most satisfactory manner, the declamations, sarcasms, 
and even coarse abuse, in which men of merit, blinded by 
rooted prejudices, have allowed themselves towards observ- 
ers who were only actuated by the love of truth, and desire 
of being useful.* 

M. Deleuze proves that these adversaries knew nothing 
about magnetism ; that they father upon its partisans absurd 
opinions ; that they pass by in silence the most convincing 
proofs ; and that, forced at last to admit indisputable phe- 
nomena, they attribute them to a cause incompetent to pro- 
duce them. We should know little of M. Deleuze, did we 
suppose for an instant that he profits by his advantages, and 
hurls back upon his calumniators the ridicule and contempt 

* I ought to justify this assertion, lest i be accused of partiality. 
The following passage will prove, better than I can do it myself, 
what were the intentions of the author, and of those persons who 
scattered his works in profusion through all the seminaries. 

" While men affect d no longer to believe in the existence of the 
devil, he it was who played the principal part in the lodges of free- 
masons, in the caves of the illuminati, in the theatres of the cities, 
on the stages of the populace, in the saloons of the rich and great, 
and even in the palaces of kings. He was travestied, sometimes as 
the " Wonderful Man," sometimes as a physician, sometimes as a 
" Magnetizer" sometimes as a ventriloquist, sometimes as an artist, 
sometimes as a charlatan, sometimes as Samson, sometimes as a 
fortune-teller, sometimes as a card-player." — Superstitions of Phi- 
losophers* 



APPENDIX. 7 

with which they wished to overwhelm him. His volume is 
a model of dignity, reason, and politeness. 

Among the instances of this which I might adduce, there 
is one I cannot pass over in silence. M. Virey says, p. 
404 of his article on Magnetism : " Should Mesmer, or one 
of his most able successors, throw a horse or cow into som- 
nambulism, then I would recognise the empire of universal 
magnetism." To this strange demand, M. Deleuze content- 
ed himself with replying : " Every body knows very well, 
that M. Virey never will be convinced, if he must first wit- 
ness such a phenomenon as this." 

After having addressed the learned world in his " Critical 
History," M. Deleuze wished to draw up a system of rules, 
which should place the subject within the reach of all minds. 
This end he has attained by publishing his " Practical In- 
struction,"* Paris, 1825. Men versed in its phenomena 
will find in this book the results of a consummate experi- 
ence. Those who have as yet seen nothing, and who de- 
sire to assure themselves of the truth of the facts, will draw 
from thence all the knowledge necessary to avoid mistakes, 
to observe with profit, and to give to their practice a salu- 
tary direction. 

Since that period M. Deleuze has published nothing con- 
cerning magnetism, although he has still in his hands rich 
materials, upon which some physicians who have read 
them, agree in bestowing the highest praise. Such are, an 
Essay on Prevision ; several very curious modes of treat- 
ment ; the remainder of the articles on Van Helmont ; and 
several dissertations on the most important questions of mag- 
netism. 



*The "Practical Instruction" concludes with a letter to M. 
Koreff, whose learning and excellent sense are known to all his as- 
sociates. M. Deleuze having invited him to make such additions 
to his work as he should deem useful, M. Koreff contented himself 
with a brief statement of the results of his observations, pointing 
out thedifficulties he had met with in his practice ; but the import- 
ance of the facts, the soundness of the principles, the depth and 
usefulness of its views, prove it to be a production that cannot be 
too often consulted. 



8 APPENDIX. 

Upon the death of M. Jascan, in 1828, he was appointed 
librarian of the Museum of Natural History. He is a 
member of the Philomathic Society, as well as of several 
learned bodies, both in France and in foreign countries, and 
for fifteen years has drawn up the annual reports of the 
Philanthropic Society, of which he is secretary. Such is the 
ascendance which the wisdom and private virtues of M. 
Deleuze acquire over all who know him, that in the discus- 
sions of the Royal Academy of Medicine, his name has 
never been pronounced without being accompanied with the 
most honorable epithets ; the commission have always cited 
him as authority. His rare qualities, his pleasing and in- 
structive conversation, have gained him many friends among 
the most celebrated of the learned, Levaillant, Duperron, 
Cuvier, de Humboldt, etc., and in the unanimous opinion of 
his contemporaries, he divides with M. le Marquis de Puy- 
segur, the honor of having defended and propagated one of 
the most beautiful discoveries of modern times. 



Note 2. 

Some additional particulars may be gathered from a 
letter, an extract from which is inserted below. It is from 
the gentleman who was the first that lectured on the subject 
of animal magnetism in New-England, and who has pub- 
lished a translation of the celebrated Report of the Royal 
Society of Medicine, in relation to which it may be said, 
that he who has not read it, has yet to take the most judi- 
cious step towards an acquaintance with the subject. This 
letter is dated 

Nantucket, Aug. 22, 1837. 
Mon cher monsieur — Je suis charme que vous ayez 
entrepris la traduction de Deleuze ; mais qu'il est celui de 
ses ouvrages que vous traduisez ? est ce son Histoire Cri- 
tique, ou l'Instruction Pratique ? Je crois que ce dernier est 
le plus utile a faire passer en Anglais, dans l'etat actuel de 
la science en ce pays-ci. * * 



APPENDIX. y 

Je suis fache de ne pas pouvoir vous donner les details 
que vcus me demandez sur M. Deleuze. Je ne le connais 
pas personellement. Ce que je sais sur son compte, je le 
tiens de l'ouvrage de Foissac, et de ce qu'il raconte de lui- 
meme dans son second chapitre sur le somnambulisme, au 
premier volume de l'Histoire Critique. 

Deleuze est bien vieux, et ne doit pas etre loin de la 
tombe : peut-etre meme y est-il renferme ! Je crains en 
verite que le coup fatal ne lui ait ete porte ; car, l'anne 
passee, il etait cleja si affaibli par les infirmities de la vieil- 
lesse, qu'il n'a pas pu faire imprimer lui-meme son dernier 
et admirable memoire sur la Faculte de Prevision. Voici 
comment, son estimable ami, M. Mialle, s'exprime a ce sujet, 
dans une note inseree par lui dans la brochure dont je viens 
de parler. 

" M. Deleuze se proposait depuis 1820 de faire imprim- 
er un receuil de dissertations, de traitements, d'extraits de 
correspondance, &c. — pour servir de suite a l'Histoire 
Critique du Magnetisme ; le memoire que l'on vient de lire 
devait en faire partie. Ses occupations multiplies, l'ont 
empeche d'efTectuer ce projet, et maintenant, helas ! 1'afTai- 
blissement de ses forces lui en ote la possibility . Cependant ? 
ses amis appreciant toute l'importance de ce dernier ouv- 
rage, ont pense qu'on ne devait pas en difTerer plus Iong« 
temps la publication." 

"3v T? if zfe ^ *fr 

Croyez moi bien sincerement votre tres devoue, 

CHARLES POYEN, 



Note 3.— Page 16. 

A child about nine years of age, attending the school of 
Miss S***, in this city, was, about a month ago, during an 
intermission, found to be asleep in the school-room. One 
of the young scholars came and gave information. Miss 
S*** and others tried to rouse her, but not succeeding, they 



10' APPENDIX. 

became alarmed. A. young medical student, a son of Com- 
modore John Orde Creighton, being called in. soon per- 
ceived that she was in a magnetic sleep. A little girl about 
ten years old, immediately burst into tears. It was evident 
that she had done it ; but she was so much terrified at 
the result of the mischief, that Miss S*** called her into 
another room, soothed her distress, and told her she need not 
be frightened : she had only to go to Anne, and ask her to 
wake up. This was done. She merely spoke to her, and 
she came out of her magnetic state, with that smile upon 
her visage which is peculiar to those who are gently roused 
from it. 

The child had been, once before, and only once, put into 
the somnambulic statCi It was effected in about five min- 
utes, by a lady who had never before tried her hand at this 
business.* 

I learned these particulars from Mr. Benjamin Cozzens, 
and Mr. Joseph Balch, Jr. 

Dr. *** of this city, informed me that one of his daughters, 
seven years of age, put her little sister, between two and 
three years of age, into a deep magnetic sleep, so that her 
mother could not rouse her. Some time afterwards she was 
very eager to experience the effect again, and cried because 
she was not permitted to be magnetized. 

An instance occurred of one boy's putting another into 
the same state, which was related to me by an eyewitness 
of the fact. It took place in this city. 



* An instance of the power of magnetizing without manipulation, 
and causing sleep at the first trial, is afforded in the case of a wo- 
man, who, being in a nervous state, was put to sleep for the first 
time by her husband, in the coarse of fifteen minutes, without her 
knowing any thing of his intention ; she sitting at one part of the 
room, and he in another. When she was asleep, he went into an 
adjoining room out of her direct vision, and taking down a book, 
began to read it. After being sometime in the magnetic state, she 
was awakened. She related correctly what he had done, and 
evinced the usual proofs of clairvoyance. The gentleman is a resi- 
dent of this city, a friend of mine, on whose veracity I can depend. 



APPENDIX. 11 



Note 4.— Page 63. 

Clairvoyance. This term is used to denote the faculty 
peculiar to somnambulists and epileptic persons, which ena- 
bles them to see things near, and also things distant, without 
appearing to use the eye. It seems to be a more expressive 
word than any in the English language that could be brought 
to convey its meaning, because the idea meant to be con- 
veyed is peculiar ; and we must either limit a familiar word 
to one of its significations, invent a new one, or adopt that 
which is already introduced, and is appropriate in the tech- 
nology of magnetism. Its literal signification is clear-sight- 
edness ; its technological signification, is, clear-sightedness 
in the somnambulic state. 

Somnambulists, when they wish to examine an object at- 
tentively, generally press it lightly against the epigastrium. 
The translator has seen one case where the seat of vision 
was on the back part of the head ; and another where it 
was on one side of the head, near the organ designated by 
Spurzheim as alimentiveness. The objects examined, such 
as bank bills, and the superscriptions of letters, are always 
held with the blank side next to the seat of vision, so as to be 
read from right to left. The translator would not make 
this assertion, were he not sure of being supported in it by 
hundreds of the most respectable inhabitants of this his na- 
tive city. 

Mr. , of Troy, in New-York, being desirous of test- 
ing the clairvoyant power of one of our somnambulists, and 
being withal a skeptic, notwithstanding the evidence offered 
by the statements and by the thorough convictions of some 
of his own friends, wrote a sentence upon a piece of paper, 
without the knowledge of any person, enclosed it between 
two thick cards, folded them all up in a deep blue sheet of 
paper to prevent the transmission of light, took the precau- 
tion to seal it with his own seal and a number of wafers, 
and put the whole into a larger sheet, directed to Mr. Isaac 
Thurber. Mr. Thurber presented the letter, sealed as it 
came, to Miss Brackett, while she was in the somnambulic 



12 APPENDIX. 

state, in the presence of Mr. Henry Hopkins, and a number 
of others, and requested her to read the contents without 
breaking the seals. Miss JB. took the letter, and retired, 
from choice, to a dark room. On her return, she gave the 
following as the sentence contained therein, which Mr. 
Hopkins wrote down at her dictation. 

No other than the eye of omnipotence can read this in this 
envelopement. ****** 1837. 

The letter was then sent back in an envelope, the seals 
not having been broken, with the above sentence written up- 
on the outside of it. There was something where the stars 
are placed which she could not read. 

This number will be published before an answer can be 
received from Troy. In the second number it shall be 
made known, whatever may be its purport. The following 
letter may serve to show on what basis we raise our confi- 
dence. 

Sir — Previous to the experiment of Mr. , of Troy, I 

had done this thing to try the clairvoyant power of Miss B. 
I wrote this sentence on a sheet of paper, Animal magnetism 
may be rendered useful, and carefully folded up the sheet, 
so that the writing was covered with three thicknesses, 
sealing it with four seals. I then directed it to Doctor Ca- 
pron, with a request that he would find out the contents of 
the letter, and write the same on the back of it. No person 
but myself knew what was in it. Doctor Capron brought 
it the next day to my counting-room, and it was opened in 
the presence of a number of witnesses. The writing on 
the back, corresponded exactly with the writing inside, and 
the seals had not been broken. 

On another occasion Miss B., who, by the way, is per- 
fectly blind in the natural state, as Mr. Jesse Metcalf will 
inform you, for she has resided many weeks in his family, 
recognised a lady of her acquaintance in a house about a 
quarter of a mile off. Miss B. had never been there till 
that morning, and then only in spirit. My object in sending 



APPENDIX. 13 

her to that house, was, to see if she would recognise that 
lady, who, I knew, was there on a visit. 

Yours, 

ISAAC THURBER. 

In order to prove whether a somnambulist can really 
visit a place where he has never before been, and describe 
the present appearance of things there, the Rev. E. B. 
Hall went, without the knowledge of any one, into the room 
in which the Franklin Society deposit their curious collec- 
tion, and disarranged several conspicuous articles. He then 
went to confer with a young woman who resides at the dis- 
tance of half a mile from the house occupied by the Franklin 
Society, and she being in the magnetic state, he sent her 
into it in spirit without informing her of the disarrangement 
he had made. She had previously been sent there in the 
same state, so that she knew immediately what alterations 
had been made, and stated them so satisfactorily as to es* 
tablish the fact investigated. This is only one out of many 
proofs which might be adduced to the same effect. 

Still the suspicion very naturally remained, that the som- 
nambulist derives all his notions from the mind of the per- 
son in communication, which, though it be an astounding 
circumstance, would induce us to view the subject in an en- 
tirely different light. To try this, I one day put an old 
spike into a gun-barrel, and placed it about four or five 
feet from my writing desk against the wall. I then sent a 
note to Dr. Brownell, who was then with one of his patients 
in the somnambulic state, requesting him to ask her what 
was in a gun-barrel lying on my desk. The lad who car- 
ried the note did not know its contents, and did not go into 
the house, but came back immediately : in about thirty min- 
utes, a line came from Dr. Brownell, stating that there was 
no gun-barrel on my desk ; but that there was one leaning 
against the wall a short distance from it. Other facts afford- 
ing similar proofs are abundant. It is proper to state that 
the gun-barrel had probably never been in the room before, 

L 



14 APPENDIX. 

A still more interesting proof is exhibited in the following 
relation ; which, I am authorized to say, is true in all its 
important facts, and is known to have created a great sen- 
sation at the time. Fortunately the witnesses are gentle* 
men of high standing, and of scientific attainments, whose 
words are the currency of truth. The relation is extracted 
from a long and interesting article in the Salem Gazette. 

" Dr. B*******, of Providence, operated upon a young 
lady, who, during the period of magnetic sleep, frequently 
left the body, and could see and hear without the aid of eyes 
or ears. She could tell correctly the time by a watch, 
though enveloped in a cloth, and at the same time having a 
bandage over her eyes. The doctor had a patient, sick, as 
was believed, of the liver complaint, and bade the girl, who 
was sitting near him, go (in spirit) to the man's house. 
Arrived, she at the doctor's request, described the house 
that there might be no mistake, and then entered. What 
do you see? asked Dr. B. 'A man sick.' Now I want 
you to tell me what ails him. First look at his head : is 
that well ? ' Yes.' How do you know? Do you mean to 
say that you see the internal organization ? ' Yes.' Is the 
liver, heart, &c. well? ' Yes ; it looks just the same as 
yours, or anybody's else.' Well, do you see anything 
wrong ? ' Yes, there is an enlargement of the spleen.' 
Several questions were then put to confuse her, and also to 
ascertain if she knew what the spleen was, and where situ- 
ated ; to all which she gave satisfactory replies. Still the 
doctor was incredulous. But now comes the proof. In four 
days the man died, and Dr. B. having obtained permission 
to institute a post mortem examination, called on every phy- 
sician in fhe city, and narrated the story of the girl. In 
presence of several of them the body was subsequently 
opened, when to their surprise, the girl was right — all that 
ailed the man was an enlargement of the spleen. 

What shall we say to this fact ? It is substantiated be- 
yond the possibility of a doubt, as may be learned by any 
one passing through Providence. Shall we set it down 
among the list of curious coincidences, or admit that the girl 
actually possessed a supernatural sense of vision, and that 



APPENDIX. 15 

for the time being, her immortal spirit, released from the 
body, roved freely and at the will of the operator ? 

As in the state of vision, the fact is no more strange, than 
in the well-attested case of the famed Springfield somnam- 
bulist. Now if we admit that the soul in this case saw with- 
out the aid of the eyes, why not admit that, in certain states 
of the nervous system, other senses or faculties of the mind 
may also act independently of their material organs? We 
know the soul thus exists after death, and why not in the 
state of temporary death caused by animal magnetism ? 
What know we of the nature of that deathless spark within 
us ? And if we allow that it may, without the body, enter 
the next room, we cannot deny the possibility that it may 
in the same manner annihilate time and space, and travel 
hundreds of miles as easily and as quickly as it can so many 
feet. 

But some say, we cannot believe that God has given 
such a dangerous power to the human will. It is out of 
the common order of nature ; it is a miracle ; we cannot 
believe it. But who can set bounds to the dominion of the 
human will. Man — before the steady gaze of whose eye 
the forest king trembles and flees ; whose power extends to 
the huge dwellers in ocean's unfathomed infinite ; man — at 
whose nod the giant oak which for centuries has braved 
heaven's thunderbolts, falls prostrate, and rises again in 
beauty to adorn his mansion ; who lays his will upon the 
everlasting rock and it becomes as wax ; whose highway is 
earth, and air, and ocean ; whose servant is the lightning ; 
whose intellect spans earth and encircles heaven — thinking, 
reasoning, godlike man — who can set bounds to the untried 
power of his mysterious will ? Who say to it ' thus far 
shalt thou come and no farther V 

Now, though in the above-mentioned cases, our will op- 
erates through more tangible means, the facts, were they 
not so common, are as wonderful as the alleged fact that 
this same mighty agent operating through the nervous sys- 
tem, produces all the wonders of animal magnetism. If 
actual experiment demonstrates the fact, fools may laugh, 
but wise men believe ; and believing, bow down and adore 



16 APPENDIX. 

with deeper reverence that Great Being from whose al- 
mighty will these millions of human wills emanated." 

On reading this communication, which nearly accorded 
with what I had heard stated, I conversed with Doctor B., 
who is one of our oldest physicians, and asked him whether 
the statement there made was correct. He replied that it 
was, in substance ; but some of the particulars were imper- 
fectly stated. He gave me the following account. 

The patient lived more than a quarter of a mile from my 
house. I requested a somnambulist, then at my house, to 
see if she could find such a man, at the same time pointing 
out to her the situation of the house, which was not in sight 
from the room where we continued all the time. She saw 
him. On being asked in what room, she replied, in the 
third room back from the street. She was then requested 
to describe the situation of the furniture in it, in order to 
discover whether she had got into the right place, and 
whether her clairvoyance might be trusted to at that time ; 
she described it very exactly. 

I then told her my patient had been sick a long time, and 
desired her to examine him and tell what the disease was. 

She said, " He looks so bad, I do not like to do it." I re- 
plied, " Never mind that ; it looks bad to you, because you 
have not been accustomed to looking at the interior of a 
body." 

As I supposed him to be affected with a diseased liver, 
and with indigestion arising from a diseased state of the 
stomach, I asked her to look at the stomach to see if that 
was diseased ; she answered, " No." 

Is the liver diseased ? " No." 

Well, examine the whole intestinal canal, and see if there 
is any disease there. " I do not see any," said she. 

Examine the kidneys. "Nothing is the matter with 
them." 

Not knowing what other part to call her attention to, I 
requested her to look at every part of him. 

After some little time, she says, " His spleen is swelled ; 
it is enlarged." 



APPENDIX. 17 

His spleen ! said I ; when we speak of a person who is 
spleeny, we suppose he has an imaginary complaiot. What 
do you mean ? 

She said, " The part called the spleen, is enlarged." 

How do you know it is enlarged ? 

" It is a great deal larger than yours." 

Do you see mine ? " Yes." 

How large is his spleen ? 

" It is a great deal longer and thicker than your hand." 

I then asked her to put her hand where the spleen is sit- 
uated. She immediately placed her hand over the region 
of the spleen. 

I then asked her what the shape of the stomach was : she 
replied that it was like a flower in the garden. I was not 
acquainted with that flower, and do not recollect the name 
she gave to it. 

I then requested her to recollect all about this, saying I 
wished to talk with her about it when she awoke. 

After she came out of the somnambulic state, she was 
asked whether she remembered having examined the sick 
person. She remembered it. 

What part did you tell me was diseased ? After a little 
consideration, she replied, " I believe I told you the spleen 
is enlarged." 

How came you to call it the spleen ? 

" I do not know." 

Did you ever hear any description of the internal organs, 
or see any plates of them? " No." 

Should you know the plate representing the stomach, if 
you were to see it ? 

" I think I should if it looked like it." 

I will go into the library and bring out some plates, to see 
whether you know the internal organs. 

While I was gone into the library, she said to a lady 
present, " Every once in a while I saw fluids pass from his 
stomach into his bowels." 

On returning with the volume of plates, in order to as- 
certain whether she really distinguished the different organs, 
I showed her a plate somewhat resembling the stomach, 
- L* 



18 APPENDIX. 

and asked her if that was what she saw for the stomach ? 
She said, " No." Turning to several plates in succession, 
she declared that neither of them resembled the stomach. 

Then turning to the true plate, as if accidentally, while 
throwing open the leaves, intending to pass it by unless she 
noticed it, she immediately cried out, " That 's it ; that 's 
what I saw for the stomach." 

I then conversed with her in relation to the other viscera ; 
and she gave a very correct description of them, as she had 
done in her sleep. I asked her if she had conversed upon 
the subject, or seen any plates of the internal organs. She 
declared she never had. 

Seven days after this, the patient was taken more seri- 
ously ill, and died on Saturday, the third day following. 

On Monday, a post-mortem examination took place ; pre- 
vious to which I invited all the physicians whom I could 
find in the city. 

Eighteen persons were present, of whom sixteen were 
physicians. 

I then stated all the particulars of the examination by the 
somnambulic patient ; and requested the physicians to ex- 
amine the body to see if they could discover the diseased 
spleen from external examination. They, with one voice, 
declared they could not. 

I then opened the body, and, to the utter astonishment of 
the physicians present, found the spleen so enlarged as to 
weigh fifty-seven ounces. Its usual weight is from four to six 
ounces. 

No other disease was perceptible except a general in- 
flammation, which no doubt came on about three days 
before his death. 



Note 5.— Page 36. 

The power exercised over the imagination of the patient, 
is not the least singular thing connected with the subject. 
The success of all experiments of this kind, depends upon 



APPENDIX. 19 

the control which the magnetizer has over his own imagi- 
nation, as well as upon the strength which belongs to it. A 
long practice will enable a man to call up a clear concep- 
tion of the article which he wishes to administer ; and he 
will succeed in proportion to the clearness and strength of 
this conception, other things being equal. 

A glass of water being held in your hand, you will cause 
the magnetizer to be called into another room, where a per- 
son whom you select, will whisper to him what you wish to 
have it taste like. The magnetizer returns, fixes his mind 
upon the glass of water, to impart to it the desired quality, 
and requests the somnambulist to take it from your hand 
and drink it. He will then ask him what he is drinking. 
The somnambulist never fails to tell, if it be any thing with 
which he is acquainted. It may be he is but slightly ac- 
quainted with the liquor whose taste is induced into the glass 
of water ; in this case is evidently involved another condi- 
tion to render the trial satisfactory, viz. : the patient must 
know the article attempted to be imposed upon him. 

An empty glass does as well as a full one. A peach 
may thus be transformed into an apple, a pear, an iron ball, 
&c. A handkerchief folded, may be changed into a child, 
a cat, or a dog, and thrown into the lap. In the first case, it 
will be fondled ; in the second, thrown off with violence, or 
caressed, as the feeling or the prejudice may happen to be. 

Nor is it the fact, as some suppose, that the effect is pro- 
duced merely upon the imagination of the patient. Any 
medicine which the magnetizer can form a strong concep- 
tion of, may be administered in this manner, and will be ac- 
companied with all its usual effects, as if it were really 
taken. This is a well known and common fact. 

This brings me to the design of this note. At page 36, 
mention is made of magnetized water. An explanation of 
its uses and of the manner of preparing it, will be found in 
the second number of this work. Water is magnetized by 
making a few passes along the vessel containing it, stirring 
it with the thumb, and accompanying the action with a 
steady exercise of the will, as to the effects which it shall 
produce. This experiment differs from the ones described 



20 APPENDIX. 

above, since they were to influence the taste, merely. In 
the present case, the taste is not altered much, and some- 
times not at all. " It takes," says one author, " about one 
minute to magnetize a glass of water, and two or three 
minutes are required for a pitcher-full. The patient gene- 
rally distinguishes it from other water, by a peculiar sensa- 
tion which it excites in the stomach." Experiments of this 
kind have not yet been made in this country with sufficient 
exactitude to be worthy of statement. 



Note 6.— Page 77. 

Among the somnambulists that I have seen, there has 
been a peculiar delicacy exhibited while in the magnetic 
state. Though the magnetizer undoubtedly possesses the 
power of changing the appearance of things to their percep- 
tion, such as turning an apple into a walnut, and water into 
lemonade ; yet he, probably, cannot destroy that native 
sense of propriety which seems to be quickened in the 
somnambulist. 

Foissac says, page 392, " that when M. de Puysegur saw, 
in 1784, the control which he exercised over somnambulists, 
he was affrighted at the thought that others might turn 
aside this power from its holy intention. But all his patients 
declared to him, that they preserved in that state their 
judgment and their reason ; that they perceived very quickly 
the designs of the magnetizer, and that these could readily 
cause them to awake. The authors I have cited in the 
preceding paragraph are of the same opinion. My somnam- 
bulists Lave told me exactly the same things. If then some 
instances of a contrary nature are thrown out against us, I 
will say that magnetism has been the pretext, and not the 
cause of these disorders ; because it does not take from all 
those who practise it, the vicious propensities of their hearts, 
and that all the abuses of which complaint is made, would 
have existed as much without it as with it." 



APPENDIX. 21 



Note 7.— Page 85. 

The gentlemen who have practised magnetism in this 
country have arrived to the observation of the same general 
rules which govern the more experienced practitioners of 
France, This is the more remarkable, since they have 
been obliged to depend upon the experience which they 
gained from their own practice, through a want of proper 
means of information. This fact about the consequences of 
making short passes before the head, which M. Deleuze 
calls charging it too much, was observed to me by one of 
them who had never read on the subject. 



Note 8.— Page 85. 

It is not to be wondered at, then, if some rough attempts 
made to rouse a somnambulist, by persons who doubted the 
reality of the sleep, have effected the object and thrown a 
temporary suspicion upon magnetism itself, as though it 
professed to do what it could not perform. One instance of 
this kind has often produced strong skepticism in the minds 
of many persons. Hence it is proper to know that there is 
always a liability, though a very slender probability, of 
having a patient waked by such means. Unfortunately 
the curious phenomena must be exhibited, before magnetism 
can gain converts to faith in its curative and restorative 
virtues ; and few are satisfied with hearing about the power 
possessed by somnambulists, of visiting in spirit the houses 
of their neighbors and friends ; each one claims the privi- 
lege of sending one into his own house and hearing his own 
furniture described. They want the proof of Didymus ; 
and when they have obtained it, they depart in wonder and 
astonishment, like the woman of Samaria from the well of 
Sychar, and relate what they have seen, to excite the won- 
der and astonishment of others. Hence they who merely 
hear of these phenomena, form an estimate of the subject 
not from its real utility, but from its curious nature. And 






22 APPENDIX. 

there is some danger of having its curative and restorative 
powers overlooked in the rage of curiosity. When this 
rage shall have subsided, the magnetizers will have leisure 
to pursue their avocation without interruption. And the 
maxims of the benevolent Deleuze, who forbids such exper- 
iments, will command the respect and the attention that 
they deserve. 



Note 9.— Page 85. 

The translator has himself witnessed the exertion of this 
paralyzing power, both upon patients who were in the mag- 
netic sleep, and upon others while they were not. He has 
not, however, seen a person paralyze the limbs of another 
who had never been put into the magnetic sleep by him. 
It seems to be a necessary condition that a perfect commu- 
nication shall have been established at some previous time. 
The power which is gained by the practice of magnetism, 
is however so great, that it may be found to be effectual in 
a trial of this kind, without this condition. 

When the patient is in the state of magnetic sleep, this 
paralysis of the limbs, of the muscles of the face, of the 
tongue, and of the eyelids, has been produced in the pre- 
sence of many persons, including myself, who tried all means 
to detect imposture or mistake. The magnetizer would act 
by the will merely, upon the part indicated on a slip of pa- 
per thrust into his hands, he continuing at the distance of 
eight or ten feet from the person whose limbs were to be 
paralyzed, and not uttering a single audible word. Nor was 
this effect produced by strangers whom we do not know : 
on the contrary, they are our own citizens, in whom we 
have perfect confidence as to their integrity of purpose ; 
and who have never been known to be devoted to tricks of 
legerdemain and diablerie. 

Providence, August 25th, 1837. 
Sir, — In the Practical Instruction in Animal Magnetism, 
which I am now publishing in English, the author mentions 



APPENDIX. 23 

the power that some magnetizers have of paralyzing the 
limhs of a patient in the magnetic state. But the instance 
which you recently related to me is so much more extraor- 
dinary, that I wish to obtain from you in writing, a state- 
ment of the facts in relation to it, with permission to make 
use of it in a note. I shall esteem it a valuable addition to 
the authentic matter to be embraced in the appendix of 
each number of that work. 

Yours, respectfully, 

T. C. HARTSHORN. 
Dr. Thomas H. Webb. 

Providence, Sept. 1, 1837. 

Dear Sir — My time has been so much occupied of late, 
as to have rendered it impossible for me, until the present 
moment, to reply to your note of the 25th ult., and even 
now I am so circumstanced as to be unable to do more than 
write a very brief reply. 

In conversation with Mr. Daniel Greene, of Pawtucket, 
who, as you probably well know, is the most powerful, 
as he has been the most extensive magnetizer in this coun- 
try, I inquired if he were able to magnetize and thereby 
obtain control over a single limb, whilst the rest of the body 
remained in a natural state. He said that he had done it, 
in the case of Miss J., with whom you are acquainted, and 
would attempt it on another patient that we w r ere going to 
see that afternoon, if reminded of it. 

The individual alluded to had never been magnetized but 
three times, and did not present a very striking exemplifi- 
cation of the usual magnetic phenomena. After trying va- 
rious experiments that consumed several hours, we left the 
house, having forgotten the subject matter of my interroga- 
tory. But upon recollecting it, we returned, and the patient 
reseated herself upon being requested so to do, without any 
reason being given her for making the request. 

Mr. Greene then went through the usual manipulations 
some dozen or twenty times, confining them to the space 
reaching from the top of the left shoulder, to the extremities 



24 APPENDIX, 

of the fingers on the same side. He afterwards requested 
her to raise the left hand to the head. She said she could 
not. There was evidently a powerful effort made to do 
this, as was shown by the working of the muscles inserted 
into the upper portion of the shoulder ; but the limb re- 
mained powerless and motionless, not obeying the dictates 
of the owner's will. She was asked to raise her right arm 
to the head, which was done promptly and with perfect ease 
and freedom. Again she was directed to stretch out the 
left hand, but unavailingly. It was completely paralyzed ; 
devoid of motion and of sensation. I gave it a severe pinch, 
nipping with the thumb and finger, as hard as I deemed it 
prudent to, leaving deep impressions with my nails. Upon 
inquiring if it did not hurt her, she, with an incredulous 
smile, observed, that I had not done any thing to her. 
I then, without saying any thing, pinched, in the same 
manner, though less severely, the other hand, when she 
drew back from me with a sudden start and complained 
that I hurt her. The arm, to one lifting it, was a perfect 
dead weight. I poised it on my ringers, and Mr. G. re- 
stored it ; and there was a very marked difference in it and 
about it, as it passed from the magnetic to the natural state. 

To a person not acquainted with the magnetizer, mag- 
netizee, and the gentlemen present, there will of course ap- 
pear nothing conclusive upon the subject of magnetism, in 
what is hear detailed ; but to those of us who had previously 
examined other patients, and satisfied ourselves of the exis- 
tence of a power by means of which, to a certain extent, one 
individual may obtain mental mastery over another, the 
experiment was satisfactory. 

Should a suitable opportunity hereafter present, I may 
furnish you with a statement of some singular cases which 
I have witnessed. In the meantime I remain, 
Yours, &c. 

THOMAS H. WEBB. 

Mr. Thomas C. Hartshorn. 

Among the persons who have possessed this extraordi- 
nary power, Gassner deserves especial mention. A brief 






« 



APPENDIX. 25 

notice of him may be found in the volume of Doctor Foissac, 
page 446. I will translate a portion of it. 

John Joseph Gassner, born at Braz, in the circle of Sau- 
bia, 1727, having been delivered by exorcism, from a long 
continued disease, which had resisted all the resources of 
the medical art, persuaded himself that the greater part of 
human infirmities might be attributed to no other cause than 
demoniacal possession, and that they should be treated with 
exorcism. He began by curing the sick persons of his own 
parish ; but very soon Switzerland, Tyrol, and Saubia, sent 
him theirs, and he cured four or five hundred a year. Af- 
ter having gone over different provinces, he established him- 
self at Ratisbon, under the protection of the lord bishop, 
(prince-eveque.) The number of persons resorting to him 
was so considerable, that he often had ten thousand of them 
encamped in the neighborhood of Ratisbon. Gassner re- 
garded faith as an essential condition to be cured. It was 
rare to have the patients delivered from their afflictions at 
the first exorcism. He consecrated to them several hours, 
and often many days. When he wished to act upon a pa- 
tient, he made him place himself on his knees before him ; 
he almost always touched the affected part. Sometimes he 
rubbed his hands upon his waist or upon his neck, but it was 
not always the case. 

Gassner had the power, by his will, to make the pulse of 
his patients vary ; he made it small, great, strong, feeble, 
slow, quick, irregular, intermittent ; and finally, just as the 
physicians who were present requested of him. He para- 
lyzed the limbs, caused them to weep, to laugh ; and soothed 
or agitated them simply by expressing his order in Latin, or 
rather, mentally. 

He thus operated the most extraordinary cures. They 
found a small number of persons to contradict the facts. 
But, who would have thought it ? the celebrated De Haen,* 
one of the first physicians of his age, not conceiving how 

* The translator has not been able to find out whether this is the 
same De Haen under whom Mesmer studied. 

M 



26 APPENDIX. 

Gassner had been able to perform such cures, concluded 
that his power was derived from the devil. He however, 
first argued the question whether they could have been done 
by sympathy, or by magnetism, but he declared he did not 
know any one sufficiently well versed in occult philosophy 
to operate such wonderful things. 

About that time, Mesmer published his first observations. 
On his journey to Munich, being consulted by the elector of 
Bavaria, in relation to the cures of the curate of Ratisbon, 
he recognised in his exorcisms the presence of the virtues of 
animal magnetism, the nature and the properties of which 
it was reserved for him to make known. 

Mesmer, himself, was endowed with the same degree of 
power, which, whether exerted in the form of exorcism or 
of manipulation, would have exhibited effects equally re- 
markable. From the notes reported by Thouret, in his 
H Recherches et Doutes," I shall translate a few instances. 

Mesmer being one day with Messrs. Camp*** and d'E*** 
near the great basin of Meudon, proposed that they should 
pass alternately round to the other side of the basin, while 
he remained in his place. He made them plunge a cane 
into the water, and plunged his own into it. At this dis- 
tance, M. Camp*** experienced an attack of the asthma, 
and M. d'E*** a pain in the side, to which he was subject. 
Some persons have been seen who were not able to sustain 
the experiment without fainting. 

One day Mesmer was walking in the woods of the coun- 
try beyond Orleans. Two girls taking advantage of the 
freedom of the country, went ahead of the company to chase 
him. He began to run ; but suddenly turning round, he 
presented his cane towards them, forbidding them to come 
further : immediately their knees bent under them, and they 
could not advance. 

One evening Mesmer went into the garden of M. le prince 
de Soubise, with six persons. He prepared a tree, and a 
short time after, M'me la M. de ***, and Mesdemoiselles de 
Pr*** and P*** fell senseless. M'me la D*** de T*** held 
on to the tree without power to leave it. M. le C*** de 



APPENDIX. 27 

Mons* was obliged to sit down on a bank, not being able to 
sustain himself on his limbs. I do not recollect what effect 
M. Ang*** # , a very strong man, experienced, but it was 
terrible. Mesmer then called his servant to take away the 
bodies ; but, I do not know how it was, although well ac- 
customed to this sort of scene, even he found himself in no 
condition to act. It was necessary to wait a long time for 
each one to come to himself. 



Note 10.— Page 85. 

In the report of the committee appointed by the Royal 
Academy of Medicine, and read to that 'learned body in 
1831, may be found the following statement. 

" You have all heard of a fact which at the time fixed 
the attention of the Chirurgical Section, and which was 
communicated to it at the session of April 16th, 1829, by 
M. Jules Cloquet. The committee thought it their duty to 
embody it in this report, as one of the least equivocal proofs 
of the power of the magnetic sleep. It relates to Madame 
Plantin, aged 64 years, living at 151 Rue Saint-Denis, who 
consulted M. Cloquet, on the 8th of April, 1829, about an 
ulcerated cancer on her right breast, which she had had 
many years, and which was complicated with a considerable 
enlargement of the axillary ganglions. M. Chapelain, the 
physician of this woman, whom he had magnetized for some 
months, with the intention, as he said, of reducing the en- 
largement of the breast, had been able to obtain no other 
result than a very profound sleep, during which her sensi- 
bility appeared to be annihilated, but the ideas preserved 
all their lucidity. He proposed to M. Cloquet, that he 
should operate upon it, while she was plunged into the mag- 
netic sleep. M. Cloquet, considering the operation to 
be indispensable, consented to do it ; and it was agreed 
that it should take place on the following Sunday, April 
12th. The two evenings previous, this woman was mag- 
netized several times by M. Chapelain, who disposed her, 



28 APPENDIX. 

when in somnambulism, to support the operation without 
fear, and even led her to speak of it with composure, while 
as soon as she waked, she repelled the idea with horror. 

On the day appointed for the operation, M. Cloquet, on 
his arrival at half past ten o'clock in the morning, found 
the patient dressed, and seated in an arm chair, in the posi- 
tion of a person peacefully wrapped in a natural sleep. It 
was nearly an hour since she had returned from mass, which 
she always attended at the same hour. M. Chapelain had 
put her into the magnetic sleep since she had come back : 
the patient spoke with great calmness of the operation she 
was about to undergo. Every arrangement having been 
made for the operation, she undressed herself, and sat down 
upon a chair. 

M. Chapelain held the right arm, the left arm being suf- 
fered to hang by her side. M. Pailloux, a student at the 
Saint Louis Hospital, was charged to hand the instruments 
and to make the ligatures. First an incision was made 
from the armpit, above the tumor, to the inner side of the 
breast. The second, commencing at the same point, sep- 
arated the tumor below and passed round to meet the first. 
M. Cloquet dissected the enlarged ganglions with caution, 
on account of their proximity to the axillary artery, and 
took off the tumor. The time consumed in the operation 
was ten or twelve minutes. 

During all this time the patient continued to converse 
tranquilly with the operator, and did not exhibit the slightest 
sign of sensibility ; no movement of the limbs or of the fea- 
tures, no change in the perspiration, nor in the voice, no 
emotion, not even in the pulse, were manifested ; the patient 
did not cease to be in the state of self-forgetfulness, and 
passive insensibility, in which she was several minutes before 
the operation. They were not obliged to hold her, they 
merely sustained her. A ligature was applied to the late- 
ral thoracic artery, which was exposed during the extraction 
of the ganglions. The wound was closed with sticking 
plaster, and dressed ; the patient was put on the bed, still in 
the state of somnambulism, and left there forty-eight hours. 
An hour after the operation, a slight hemorrhage ensued 



APPENDIX. 29 

which did not continue. The first dressing was removed 
on the succeeding Tuesday, April 14th. The wound was 
cleansed and dressed anew ; the patient manifested no sen- 
sibility nor pain. The pulse preserved its natural beat. 

After the dressing had been put on, M. Chapelain awoke 
the patient, whose somnambulic sleep had lasted ever since 
one hour before the operation, that is to say, for two days. 
This woman did not appear to- have any idea, or any im- 
pression of what had passed ; but on learning that she had 
been operated upon,, and seeing her children around her, she 
experienced a very lively emotion, which the magnetizer 
put an end to, by putting her asleep immediately. 

The following names were appended to this report. 

Bourdois de la Motte, President ; Fouquier, Gueneau de 
Mussy, Guersent, Itard, J. J. Leroux, Marc, Thillaye, Hus- 



Note 10. 

Peovidence, August 31, 1837. 

Sir — In compliance with your request, expressed in a 
note, dated the 24th inst. I herewith furnish you a statement 
of the case of somnambulism which I have under my charge, 
to append as a note to the work you have in progress. 

Numerous professional engagements at this time will 
render the statement necessarily very brief and general in 
its character. This brevity however is less to be regretted, 
as you are able to obtain statements of many of the partic- 
ulars from a number of respectable gentlemen, who have 
witnessed the case, and who* could command more time to 
devote to making particular experiments. 

Miss L. Brackett, the subject of this case, is a respectable 
and intelligent young lady from Dudley, Mass. Four years 
since, when about sixteen years of age, she had the misfor- 
tune to have an iron weight, weighing two or three pounds, 
fall from a height upon the top of her head. The injury 
which she sustained was so considerable as to deprive her 
of her reason for a number of months, during which time 






30 APPENDIX. 



she was subject to the most violent spasms, and other serious 
derangements of her nervous system. From the immediate 
effects of this injury she gradually recovered, and at the 
end of the year her general health was partially restored. 
Notwithstanding, however, the improvement in her general 
health, an affection of her eyes which commenced immedi- 
ately after the receipt of the injury, and which threatened 
total blindness, was daily growing worse. The disease 
with which her eyes were affected, is called amaurosis ; 
it is an affection of the optic nerves, often of a paralytic 
character. As is usual in cases of amaurosis, the loss of 
sight was very gradual ; and it was not till the end of two 
and a half years, that it was entirely destroyed. Simulta- 
neously with the loss of sight, she sustained a loss of voice, 
which was so complete, that for fifteen months she was un- 
able to utter a single guttural sound, and could only whis- 
per in almost inaudible tones. 

This was her state in respect to her eyes and vocal or- 
gans, when I first saw her about the middle of May last. 
And her general health, though somewhat improved, was 
still far from being good. 

Considering her case as a hopeless one, arrangements 
had been made by her friends to send her to the Asylum 
for the Blind in Boston, in hopes of her being able, after 
finishing her education, to obtain a livelihood as a teacher 
in that or some other institution. When on her way to 
Boston, she stopped for the purpose of making a visit of a 
few days, with some friends which she had residing in this 
city.* Being in attendance at the time, in the family of one 
of her friends, I was requested to see her and examine her 
case, rather as a matter of curiosity, than from a hope that 
I should be able to prescribe a remedy for her deplorable 
malady. In the course of conversation with her, I found 
that all the usual means in such cases had been persever- 
ingly employed by the most skilful physicians, without ma- 
terial benefit. 

* Messrs. J. & J. Seagraves, merchants. 



APPENDIX. 31 

There being at this time a considerable excitement upon 
the subject of animal magnetism, and being myself engaged 
in investigating it with a view to its remedial effects, and 
having become fully convinced of its salutary influence up- 
on some diseases, especially those of a paralytic character, 
it occurred to me that it might be beneficially practised in 
this case ; upon the supposition that her complaints were 
dependant upon a paralysis of the nerves supplying the af- 
fected organs ; and I accordingly, as a dernier resort, pro- 
posed a trial of ito The following day, having consulted her 
friends and obtained their consent, she desired me to make 
an experiment. The first sitting occupied about forty min- 
utes before she was thrown into a profound magnetic sleep. 
On this occasion, she manifested many of the usual phe- 
nomena of that state. She walked about the house, drank 
her tea, &c. with as much ease and confidence as she could 
have done, had she been in the full possession of her sight, 
and in a waking state. 

From the time of the first experiment to the present date, 
being three and a half months, she has been magnetized 
daily, sometimes twice daily, with the exception of thirteen 
days at one time, and three or four at another. The num- 
ber of times she has been magnetized, therefore, considera- 
bly exceeds one hundred. 

The magnetic phenomena, though very astonishing at 
first, became more and more so from day to day. Wheth- 
er it were in consequence of the magnetic state becoming 
more and more perfect the more she was magnetized, or 
whether by becoming better acquainted with the subject, we 
learn to elicit those phenomena with the better success, it is 
difficult to determine ; but it is probable that it is owing to 
a combination of both these causes. 

The somnambulic, or perhaps more properly the magnetic 
phenomena, have been of several different kinds, and each 
kind manifested in several different ways. The first and 
most obvious of these phenomena, is what the French term 
clairvoyance ; clear-sightedness, mental vision, or vision 
without the use of the visual organs. This wonderful pow- 
er is manifested, first, in her being able to see any object 



32" APPENDIX. 

that is presented to her, when in the magnetic sleep, though 
totally blind when awake. Experiments have been varied 
and multiplied almost indefinitely, to prove the existence of 
this power, and with entire success, as you have had fre- 
quent opportunities to witness. Objects when examined by 
her are never held in a direction to be seen with the eyes, 
but are laid down upon the top of the back part of the head, 
or are held a little upon one side of the back of the head, 
from which points she has generally seen, though the seat 
of vision has varied at different times. She has been able, 
though with more exertion, to see objects that were enclosed 
in boxes, trunks, and watch cases ; to read letters that were 
folded, &c. 

Secondly, this power is manifested in the ability to see 
objects not present — in a distant city, for instance. In the 
exercise of this power, another seems to be necessary ; that 
of locomotion, as it has been called, or of transporting her- 
self from one place to another. This she says she does 
through the air. 

Another description of phenomena, which may be called 
those of intelligence, is manifested in the somnambulist's 
understanding the will of the magnetizer, or of the person 
with whom she may be in communication. To test this 
power, I have made a great number of experiments which 
have been almost uniformly successful. She can, for in- 
stance, be willed to have in her hand various kinds of fruits, 
cakes, wines, animals, birds, &c. ; or any other things may 
be changed from one to another at the will of the magnet- 
izer. 

There is a class of phenomena which seem to partake 
more of a physical character than those above mentioned ;. 
as witnessed in the attraction which takes place between the 
band of the magnetizer and the magnetized : and also as 
witnessed in the attraction and repulsion in the application 
of the artificial magnet. I do not wish to be understood to 
mean that this phenomenon certainly partakes of a physical 
character, though the sudden, powerful, and apparently in- 
voluntary action of the muscles seems to favor this opinion. 
On the contrary, it must be admitted that the patient in this 



APPENDIX. 33 

case not only understands the will of the magnetizer, but 
observes all his actions, and therefore these motions may 
be voluntary and in obedience to his will. Or in using the 
magnet, a powerful influence may be produced upon the 
imagination, and these effects may be occasioned by the 
imagination acting upon an excitable nervous system. 

The want of time and opportunity on my own part, and 
the desire to have as many distinguished and scientific per- 
sons see and investigate this case in their own way, as has 
been consistent with her convenience, have prevented my 
making experiments calculated to establish this point con- 
clusively : neither have I, for the same reasons, been able 
to determine, satisfactorily, whether all the senses can be 
used in reference to things not present, as is the case with 
vision, though from some recent observations, I have myself 
no doubt of the fact. 

In speaking of the magnetic phenomena, I mean only to 
refer to those which have been manifested in this particular 
case. Many others, differing materially from these, have 
been observed in other cases, of which it is neither necessary 
nor proper that I should speak at this time. Should I, 
however, ever find it convenient to communicate to the 
public a more detailed and better digested history of this 
case, which is my present intention, I shall attempt, after 
giving the result of my investigations, to follow out the 
classification of the phenomena which I have here merely 
glanced at. By pursuing this mode, perhaps we may ar- 
rive at some rational theory. At present, however, until 
a greater number of facts have been established, and more 
clearly arranged, to attempt to theorize appears to me to 
be entirely futile. 

In conclusion, it gives me great pleasure to be enabled 
to say from my own observations, that however interesting 
animal magnetism may be when considered in relation to 
science, however interesting as matter of curiosity and won- 
der, or however interesting it may be as a means of discov- 
ering our absent friends, or the machinations of our enemies, 
it is still more interesting as the means of mitigating the 
sufferings incident to human nature. It will be recollected 



34 APPENDIX. 

I have stated, that when Miss Brackett came to this city 
about the middle of May last, her general health was far 
from being good ; she was totally blind, and unable to speak 
excepting in the lowest whisper. Her condition is materi- 
ally different at this time. Her health is good ; her vision 
is partially restored ; and she speaks in her natural tone of 
voice. With much respect, 

Yours, &c. 

G. CAPRON. 

Mr. Thomas C. Hartshorn. 

Providence, August 30th, 1837. 

Mr. Henry Hopkins states that Miss Lorain a Brackett 
has lived in his family as an invited guest four or five weeks 
at different times. He is satisfied that she was totally blind 
when she first came to live with him. Her voice, when 
he first became acquainted with her, was so low and weak 
that it was difficult to hear her speak. 

Her eyes were very much inflamed and painful : the lids 
were scarcely open : they were easily affected by the light 
so as to be painful. 

She has since improved very much in her eye sight. Her 
eyes have assumed a healthy appearance; they are not 
troublesome. She can even lay aside the green shades, 
which she used to wear, without experiencing inconvenience, 
except in a very bright light. She is now able, in the natu- 
ral state, to discern the outlines of objects, such as a book, or 
a fan, for instance. 

There is also a very great improvement in her appetite, 
appearance and general health. She has been magnetized 
almost daily by Doctor Capron ; and it is to this that this 
improvement is to be attributed. Her natural cheerfulness 
and elasticity of spirits have improved with her health. In 
the magnetized state she enjoys a walk as much as any one, 
and often walks in the garden among the flowers. If she 
wishes to examine any flower very closely, she holds it 
just behind her head, near the top, without taking off her 
bonnet ; in this manner she holds whatever things she ex- 



APPENDIX. 35 

amines. To look at any picture hanging up in a room, in 
a house where she has not been before, she steps into a 
chair and brings the top of her head towards it. 
Mr. Hopkins permits me to publish this. 

Mr. Jesse Metcalf says he has known Miss B. about two 
months. She has resided in his family at different times 
about four weeks. Was not aquainted with her when she 
first came to Providence. Could not understand her very 
well at first, because her voice was very feeble ; she did 
not speak except in low whispers. Health quite delicate. 
Appetite poor. Her eyes appeared to be quite inflamed ; 
it was necessary to keep the blinds of the room almost al- 
ways closed ; and the lamp where it could not shine so as 
to pain her eyes. While at his house, she has generally 
been magnetized every day. She would sometimes remain 
in the magnetized state ten or twelve hours, during which 
she would walk about the house as well as any other per- 
son ; but when she was awake, she would have to grope 
about, and feel her way. In the magnetized state, she en- 
joys vision, looking at objects with great pleasure, especially 
pictures, portraits, &c. This makes her delight in being 
in that state. She describes such things very accurately. 

Mr. Metcalf says that her general health and her appe- 
tite are very much improved. When in the somnambulic 
state, she walks along the streets with perfect ease, and 
hears any person she is directed to, very well. She has 
been to meeting three times with his family in that state, 
and could remember some parts of the discourses, having 
heard them very well. 

When Doctor Capron leaves her in the magnetic state, 
he first tells her to answer and converse with all his 
family, or with some member of it. She cannot then talk 
with any but these persons ; nor can she hear any thing ad- 
dressed to her by any one else. She cannot, when in that 
state, hear the conversation between any two individuals. 

She can only see their lips move, and wonders they do 
not talk. She cannot even hear the person with whom she 






36 APPENDIX. 

converses, when he talks with any body else. She hears 
him only when he addresses her. 

Miss B. is intelligent, has received a good education, and 
is cheerful and pleasant. 

When in the magnetized state, she can tell immediately 
in what part of the house every member of the family is, 
without moving or turning from her seat. Mr. M. has elev- 
en in the family, including Miss B. who is now staying with 
him. 

Miss B. says the walls of the house, as do all other walls, 
appear to be transparent. She can see through them, and 
yet she can see them, and describe what kind of paper, or 
paint, is on them. 

Miss B. is of pleasing manners, and is an invited guest in 
his house, where she has interested all the family. 

Mr. Metcalf permits me to publish this statement, which 
he made at my request. 



The young lady to whom these articles relate, has consent- 
ed to have her name given, that nothing might seem to be 
wanted to add to the authenticity of the statements therein 
made ; which statements, she believes, may contribute to 
convince others afflicted as she has been, of the advantages 
to be derived from the magnetic treatment. 



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022 169 241 



NOTICE. 

In the notes, the translator has been governed by the following 
principles : 

1st. To use only the best testimony. 

2d. To mention the names of any persons who are worthy of re 
ference in relation to what they have seen, without asking permis. 
sion. 

3d. To be ready at all times to correct, in the subsequent parts, 
any error of fact that may be committed in the preceding ones. 

Much interesting matter has been deferred to the next part, 
among which is a series of experiments carefully pursued and min- 
uted down at the time, by a gentlemen at the head of one of our 
literary institutions. Twelve instances of magnetic somnambulism 
produced in men and boys have been communicated to 1 
tor. Several remarkable cures have been performed under the ; 
direction of physicians. Of these tilings some account may be ex-! 
pected. 

The magnetizers in this city have been very accommodating to': 
strangers, and men distinguished in the professions. Hundreds of 
them have had every facility of investigation, when they nv 
r ~ r ed to be guided by a philosophical spirit, and n ctiri- 

A list of a few whom the translator re pre-j 

sented, to enable their to a iismen to find ont from 

whether these things be so." A more extended « 



pared at the end of the volume, which i 

uarts, each with an appendix paged by itself. An in c whole 

will be published in the last. A second edi. 

called for, shall have a rearrangement of the 

Jcsep : T. Alien* Norfolk, Vir. ; Wm, A 
Dr. Joshua ii. Flint, Cphraim L. Frothii. 
E^ton; Thomas B. MitcUali, James G.Whil 

ista, Geo. ; Thomas Burgees, Jun., 
?ro:lssors Potter and Yates, Union College ; Dr. Brownell, Ea*'J 
Hartford ; Major Lomax, L T . S. Army; Rev. James W. Cooke, Col ! 
Stone, Abner Jones, New-York; Bishop Brownell, Har 
Rev. Francis Waylaiv.1, Sen., Saratoga, N. Y. ; Professor I" 

Casileton, Vt.> Hunt, Esq., Rev. A. Kauffm 

S. C. ; Rev. Dr. Brazer, Saiem, Mass. ; Rev. Hem 
field, Mass. ; Rev. Mr. Filiot, St. Louis, Mo. ; Rev. 
Philadelphia; Rev. F. H. Hedge, Bangor. Me. j Rev. ti 
Roxbury, Mass. ; John Taylor, Newark, N. J. 

Errors, — Note 5 should have been placed before the or,: 
precedes it. 

Mr. Poy*n*s communication betrays our want of accented 
The word lui ev ate, should read lui en a ote. 

In Doctor Capron's valuable letter, the sentence near the b 
of the 33i page should read thus — »« As a means of discover 
condition of our absent friends." At the 30th page, 3d paragraph, 
read "some other similar instruction." 

At page 8 of the Appendix, for " Jascan,* read Toscan. 

The last^ note should have been numbered 11. 



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022 169 241 ft 



